HOW TO BE MADE WHOLE
PART SEVENTEEN – STRETCH OUT YOUR HAND REVIEW So we have been learning for some time now how we can be made whole – understanding first that God indeed wants us healed. But He doesn’t just want us healed and made whole partially; He wants us healed & whole completely and wholly. We’ve learned this from our golden text for this series – First Thessalonians 5:23 – where the Holy Spirit says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Now I want you to notice how we are not just talking about being made whole in our spirit and our body: Sure, God wants us, first of all, to be spiritually made whole – that is, to be saved & born again. And yes, God wants us to also be physically made whole, healing all of our sicknesses, diseases, and infirmities. But notice in First Thessalonians 5:23 that the apostle Paul includes our soul in the middle. That means that the Lord also cares about our inner well-being. Yes, He wants our mind to be made whole. He desires our emotions to be healthy. He wants our will to be strong & not compromised. We know this to be true because when you look at Isaiah 53, where we have prophesied what Jesus would accomplish for us through the Cross, we see that the chastisement for our peace was also laid upon Him. So His crucifixion was not just about our iniquities & transgressions. Nor was it just about our sicknesses & physical infirmities. No, by His stripes we are healed also includes healing for our soul. So let’s receive our wholeness completely & wholly. Let’s not just reserve it for spiritual things or just pursue it for physical things. Let’s go after our soul being made whole as well. Amen? So what we have been doing is looking at several examples of people who were healed and made whole in the Gospels and learning from those real-life stories what those individuals did to receive their wholeness. Last week, we looked at the healing of the man with dropsy and learned how the Lord has redeemed us from any and all curses. That means that the price has been paid for us to be delivered from everything that is included in Deuteronomy chapter 28 where every damnable curse imaginable is described. So we looked at how our calendar changed when we were made a new creation in Christ Jesus and now, old things have passed away and all things have become new. So now we are blessed. Now we are saved. Now we are delivered from all the power of darkness. Our past does not hold power over us – for we are the redeemed of the Lord and we need to say so! Amen? THE HEALING OF THE MAN WITH THE WITHERED HAND This week, I want us to look at another example of healing in the Gospels that is very similar to the healing of the man with dropsy. No, not similar in the nature of the infirmity, but the setting itself was almost identical. Let’s look at it … This story is told in three of the four Gospels (Matthew 12, Mark 3, and Luke 6), so I want to jump between them, but we will mainly camp in Mark’s Gospel … In Mark 3:1, our story begins with – “And He entered the synagogue again …” Now we made this point last week, but you know that Jesus did not have a great track record when He went into synagogues, don’t you? Yet He kept going into them and attempting to minister to them. I remember a time on one of my trips to India where I was invited to a particular location (i.e. Madurai) and, like it is everywhere, there was just this religious spirit that covered the church services and pastor’s conference that we were ministering at. Well, I was questioning what we were doing and my friend that travels with me, Trinity Elisha, said, “They deserve the gospel too.” When he said that I realized something at that moment – that Jesus never shied away from the religious people. Paul always went into the synagogue first. So just because people reject and do not receive the truth you are bringing them does not mean you weren’t led in giving it to them. The Lord just likes to give us opportunity after opportunity to repent and will continue to strive with us to “get it.” This is all out of His goodness and His longsuffering—because He is not willing that any should perish but that all would come to the knowledge of the truth. So here is another lesson to be learned: if you continue to hear the same message coming to you, don’t continue to reject it. Understand that it could be the Lord attempting to establish in your heart that very truth in the mouth of two or three witnesses. Amen? Then in the rest of Mark 3:1, we are told – “… and a man was there who had a withered hand.” The word “withered” literally means “dried up, shriveled, paralyzed or an atrophied limb of the body.” In other words, it describes a hand that had shrunk due to being atrophied. This same word is actually used in John chapter 5 in the account of the healing of the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda. In verse 3 it says, “In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralyzed, waiting for the moving of the water.” Now the word for “paralyzed” is the same word used for “withered.” So we see here that this was a hand that was either specifically paralyzed or at least had similar effects of paralysis. And because of this non-use, his hand had begun to atrophy, which is why it was called “withered.” Now in Luke’s Gospel, sticking with his propensity for giving more specific details of people’s infirmities, Dr. Luke tells us that it was his “right hand (that) was withered.” (See Luke 6:6). So by indicating that this was this man’s right hand, it shows us that it likely was his most usable body part. This is an important piece of information because this one account shows us that the Lord is touched with the feelings of our infirmities—knowing what our needs are—and desires to heal those areas of our bodies and lives that we have need of. Then in Mark 3:2, we are told – “So they watched Him closely whether he would heal on the Sabbath day …” Again, we made this point last week, but why would they do this unless Jesus had the reputation for healing everyone? Amen! Let that sink in today… Jesus was known for healing people everywhere He went, so this is what caused even these unbelieving religious Jews to actually have the “hope” (i.e. the confident expectation) that He was going to heal somebody in their midst. Would to God that God’s children would have that same level of expectation today! Now they were watching Jesus while He was teaching to see whether He would heal this man. Now you understand that Jesus was probably doing a good job of teaching right here, right? He was saying something important, I’m sure. But they were not hearing Him; they were looking at the wrong thing and missing the rich revelation coming from the Master. And don’t be deceived, people still do this all of the time. It is devilish to sit there and try to find fault, to go to a meeting to find something wrong that the person is saying. Likewise, we are wrong if we are allowing our attention to be turned towards someone else in the crowd while God is doing something else. Church, don’t let the devil use your mind like a playground! Don’t be distracted from the point God is making, looking at something else. Mark 3:2 goes on to say, “so that they might accuse Him.” Let me give you a great lesson in life here: If ever we are in the “accusing mode” we are not operating by the Spirit of God. God does not accuse; He excuses. Amen! The margin of my Bible says here for “accuse” – “to bring charges against.” Romans 8:33-34 says, “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies! Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.” What these verses are basically saying is that God is not in the condemning business; He is in the justifying business! Amen! But the answer to those questions of “Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect?” and “Who is he who condemns?” is simple – it’s the devil, who is also known as the “accuser of the brethren.” So never forget this: When accusations come into your mind regarding your brethren, never entertain those thoughts! They are never from God, and they are always from the “adversary” – that is, the prosecuting attorney himself, satan. Amen! Luke’s Gospel specifically tells us that Jesus “knew their thoughts” (See Luke 6:8) – specifically during the part where they were watching him closely to find an accusation against Him. The word “knew” here comes from the Greek word “oida” which literally means to “see” (or, to realize, recognize or possess information). So what we are seeing here is Jesus operating in the word of knowledge. He actually saw their thoughts! You see, contrary to popular belief, Jesus did not always operate in the complete omniscience of God. No, He had to hear from the Holy Spirit and depend on His gifts to know the things He did. Then in Mark 3:3, notice what happens next: “And He said to the man who had the withered hand, ‘Step forward.’” (Compare with Luke 6:8 where it says, “and He said to the man with the withered hand, ‘Arise and stand here.’ And he arose and stood.”) In fact, Luke’s Gospel had it right – the command to this man of “Step forward” literally means “Arise into the midst.” You see, what Jesus was doing here is by telling this man to “arise and stand in the midst of the people,” He was wanting them to see the man above their doctrine and their theology. In other words, Jesus was wanting them to see that this was a real man with a real need, and they were only focused on their doctrinal stance. You see, we need to understand what is really important to the Lord – people. People are important – even more than our doctrinal stance. And the moment we begin to become more dogmatic regarding our beliefs on the jots and tittles of God’s Word than we are on loving and ministering to people, we are in error. Amen? But I’d like to use this phrase “step forward” to illustrate a big first “step” (pun intended) towards being made whole … A lot of times our miracle is directly tied to us taking a step of faith. You see, we are specifically told that we are to walk by faith and not by sight. That means that our Christian walk is predominantly going to be full of steps of faith – meaning, it’s not always going to make sense, we aren’t going to have any evidence, it defies logic, etc. Yes, the walk of faith contains many steps of the Lord leading us to do things that are contrary to conventional wisdom. And this will certainly be the case when it comes to being made whole. In fact, we’ve already seen this a lot in these various healings – the Lord asking people to take steps of faith to get their miracle. So if we see this theme in the Gospels, then if we are walking with the Lord correctly today, it will be the theme of our lives as well. And notice here what direction this step of faith was – “forward.” No, it wasn’t backwards. It wasn’t staying where we are at, even. No, the Lord desires for us to always move forward. It’s kind of like with this man’s withered hand – the reason it was atrophied was because of non-use. Now this guy had an excuse because, physically, he could not use this paralyzed hand. But when it comes to you and I and the various things we need to be made whole of, it’s very rare that we “cannot” do something to “step forward.” It’s like the saying – “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” Well, that’s truer than we think when it comes to spiritual things. The things God has given us are not meant to remain stagnant and not being used. God doesn’t look favorably upon people who hide & bury their talents. No, He expects us to use it, thus multiplying it for His glory. So you could say, if we are not moving forward, then we are going backwards. It’s time for us to step forward, saints! To arise out of the pack of “this is how everyone does it” and stand out from the majority and do things God’s way. Sure, it’ll make you different, but this is what holiness is all about – letting that light shine and being a light to the rest who are walking in darkness. Turn to someone and tell them – It’s time for you to step forward. Then in Mark 3:4, Jesus asked a question – “Then He said to them, ‘Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?’ But they kept silent.” Isn’t it interesting that Jesus made the comparison of doing good and saving life to the healing of this man? You see, this is the way the Lord views healing. He sees it as a priority. He sees it as more important than our doctrine. Far too many people will hurt and abuse others in the name of religion. In other words, they hold truer to their doctrine than they do to simply loving others and helping them. And this is what the religious leaders here were guilty of. They loved keeping the Sabbath more than they loved this man who was suffering. This is the tendency of religion. Let’s not be that way. Then in Mark 3:5 – “And when He had looked around at them with anger, being grieved by the hardness of their hearts …” Well, we learn here that Jesus gets angry too. And we learn specifically what He gets angry with. Jesus was angry here because of the hardness of their hearts. They were insensitive to the man with the withered hand and to his need. They were more sensitive to their doctrine and traditions – namely the Sabbath. This is a problem when we are more sensitive to a doctrine & tradition than we are to the person and their need. Mark 3:5 goes on to say, “… He said to the man, ‘Stretch out your hand’…” First of all, notice that Jesus did not say “extend your arm.” Why would Jesus ask a man with a withered hand to stretch out his hand? He couldn’t do that. But a man with a healed hand can stretch forth his hand! So what was happening here? Jesus was calling him whole! What if this man would have said, “But Jesus, I can’t stretch out my hand; it’s withered! Can’t you see that?” This is the key to miracles, folks—acting on the promptings of the Holy Spirit to do something you seemingly cannot do in the natural! Faith without works is dead! Now let’s look at this command “stretch out your hand” metaphorically: You know, some of us see ourselves like this man with the withered hand when it comes to ministering to other people and laying hands on them. Many of us see our hands as “withered”—that is, weak, small and useless. We cannot see ourselves as having the strength or ability to stretch out our hands to do anything of significance for the Lord. So do you know what the cure for this is? It is following the command of Jesus here in this account – “stretch out your hand.” We might say, “But Lord, I don’t feel like I can stretch out my hands and set them unto anything! I see my hands as weak, small and insignificant.” But if we will just obey this command and get off our hands and start putting them on people, we will see the strength of God, the healing power of the Almighty at work through our hands! Glory to God! But when it comes to us being made whole ourselves, there is meaning behind – “Stretching out our hands.” You see, sometimes people’s biggest problem is their unwillingness to “reach out.” In other words, they try and handle everything themselves and don’t ask for help. Now there is a time and a place for standing on your own and fighting your own battles. This is in no way insinuating that we never need to pray & believe God ourselves. But it is also imbalanced to never reach out to others, ask for prayer, and seek the counsel of others. I’ve just seen how we tend to get in one ditch or the other when it comes to this. Christians either tend towards never opening up to others, seeking help, asking for prayer, etc. or they tend towards reaching out too much and calling every prayer line they can think of when they are going through something. There is a balance. But today, I’m addressing the ones who never seem to do any reaching out whatsoever and not letting others in. You see, a lot of times that’s pride. Sure, we might call it something else, but I’ve found that a lot of those times are because we don’t want to admit that we need help. We want to pretend like we have it all under control, like we don’t need any help. But here’s the truth of the matter – there’s not one of us that doesn’t need help at some time or another. Yes, we all have times where we need some advice, some prayer, etc. and to think otherwise is straight up being deceived. And here’s the kicker – If we have any of this yucky pride in us, it can keep us from receiving the grace of healing – because the Bible teaches us that the humble get the grace and God resists the proud person (See James 4:6). I don’t know about you, but I don’t want divine resistance; I want divine assistance. Yes, I want more grace, not less of it. And humility is the key to receiving more of His grace. So what does this humility look like? I’m glad you asked … It’s important to understand that it is first directed towards God. In other words, it’s me reaching out to Him and asking Him questions, and not assuming I already know the answers. It’s me looking to Him for everything and submitting to His instructions which are unique for every situation. You see, I know a mistake I’ve made before is this – that I do what I think I know to do. I do the last thing that worked. In other words, I lean to my own understanding – and this understanding is oftentimes of spiritual, Scriptural things. I’ve learned that this is not always best – because what might have worked for someone else or even for me before, isn’t necessarily the right thing for this particular challenge. So the solution is what? It’s being led in every situation and reaching out to the Lord for my everyday answer. This is humility, church! It’s learning to lean on the Lord every day and in every situation. But this “extends” (pun intended) to others as well: We need to have the humility to know when and how to ask for help. In my experience, I’ve found that when I’m in the middle of a storm, my judgment might be a little clouded (put intended, again) – because when my emotions are involved, it might not be as easy to hear from God as it is at other times. So having other Spirit-filled believers who are full of wisdom is an asset because they might be able to hear more clearly what the Spirit is speaking to me. But if I’m one that is bent on handling my own stuff and not opening up to others, I might miss God’s wisdom. Two is better than one, right? We are taught this about marriage. And I can tell you this – Shannon and I have certainly experienced it! You see, when you have two people who are filled with the Holy Spirit working together for the same purpose and towards the same goal, you have at a minimum “double” the chance of hearing correctly from the Lord. But it’s actually more than double; the Bible teaches us that if one can put a thousand to flight, then two can put ten thousand to flight! So do you reckon it might work this way when it comes to getting better traction in results with being made whole? I guarantee you it does! No, you don’t have to be married for this to work, you just need to have others in your life that will join together with you and hit that area of brokenness in the multitude of counsel, strength, and anointing! Amen! Now you might feel a lot like this man with the withered hand, saying, “But Pastor, I just can’t do that. I’ve been hurt too many times. It’s just not my personality or temperament.” Well, what do they say is the definition of insanity? Doing the same things and expecting different results. If you want to see some change from the way things have always been, then your answer might be in doing something you have yet to do – specifically, the thing that your flesh kicks and screams about. It might just be that you are going to have to trust someone again. It might be that you are going to have to get out of these pews and praise & worship God in a way you’ve never done before. It might be that you are going to have to crank up the volume a little in your house – referring to lifting your voice and shouting because for some stains, you gotta shout them out. No pain; no gain, church. Then Mark 3:5 goes on to say, “and his hand was restored as whole as the other.” I’ll tell you – When God heals, He heals it, brother! 100% complete restoration for this guy! Hallelujah! How many of you would like to see that kind of restoration in your life? It can be a physical restoration like with this man, or it can be the restoration of your soul like the 23rd Psalm promises us. Yes, it can be in our body or our soul. Our God is all about restoration because it is threaded throughout the Scriptures: The example I am reminded of the most right now is with Israel as a nation. How many times did they do dumb stuff – forsaking the fountain of living waters Himself and turning to broken cisterns who could hold no water? Yes, they would turn away from their God and unto other gods. And the result was always the same – the “Ites” came in, stole their land, carried their families away in captivity, and oppressed them. It’s a reoccurring narrative in the Old Testament, and maybe it is in your life too. Maybe you are in the same boat as them. Well, God promised them time and time again that He would RESTORE – that He would restore their land to them, that He would bring them back to it, that He would even restore to them the years that were waste (See Joel 2:25). Well, you might say, “But I’ve just made so many stupid decisions. I’ve made my own bed, so now I guess I just am going to have to sleep in it.” Well, so did they. These things didn’t happen to Israel & Judah because God dropped the ball; it was because they dropped it. Yet even in that situation, God said He would restore. Finally, we see in Mark 3:6 – “Then the Pharisees went out and immediately plotted with the Herodians against Him, how they might destroy Him.” How many of you know that this is definitely not how the Pharisees should have responded to Jesus’ healing of this man? It should have read – “Then the Pharisees lifted their hands and praised God, and started trying to figure out a way to celebrate Him.” But of course they didn’t – The Scriptures teach us that they went out and immediately conspired against Him that they might destroy Him! Church, again, this is one of the reasons why you don’t see any of these religious leaders getting healed – because you will get out of a ministry what you put into it. And if this happened in Jesus’ ministry, you can bet it will happen in ours. Let’s not let that be our testimony. Let’s “step forward” and “stretch out our hand” so that the Lord can put our wholeness on full display and become exalted as a result.
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REVIEW
One thing is for sure, God wants all of us to be made whole. Yes, the same way God wants all men and women to be saved is the same way God wants all of us to be healed & whole. We’ve learned this through First Thessalonians 5:23 as well as through the myriad of examples in the Bible where Jesus healed them all! I know religious people will argue that God sometimes will leave a person broken so they will learn to depend on Him or that He doesn’t heal everyone because for some, He has a person in their infirmity for a purpose. Some call their infirmity, their “cross to bear.” But that’s ridiculous! Why? Because Jesus told us to that we can take up or lay down our cross. So if our “cross” were a physical condition or handicap, then how can one choose to lay it down? No, they are “bound” to that infirmity, barring God heals them and sets them free. No, choosing to take up one’s cross and following the Lord is correctly understood as dying to yourself and choosing to lay your life down for the Lord. Now that’s something everyone can and should do. But only religion can pervert this and make something out that the Old Testament directly calls a curse and the New Testament specifically shows us we’ve been redeemed from sound like it’s a part of God’s redemptive plan for us. All that is, is man’s poor attempt at explaining why bad things happen to good people, but those philosophies of man are a stretch to say the least. And the reason why I can say this is because of all of the examples we have from the life & ministry of Jesus where He healed all who came to Him in faith – which is where the apostle Peter got the following statement that he made to Cornelius’ household— “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). What a beautiful summary of the ministry of Jesus, which reveals to us the heart of God because Jesus only did what He saw the Father doing! Yes, Jesus always was doing good! So this is why I like to add something to our well-known Christianize – “God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good.” You see, we are accustomed to saying God is good all the time, but we need to also add that He does good all the time too (Psalm 119:68). What else was Jesus doing all the time? He was healing all who were oppressed by the devil, which was a point that we made last week – that sometimes our brokenness and the areas of our life that need healing are not just physical. No, sometimes there is a demonic control or influence that needs to be dealt with in order to be made whole. We looked at this in the example of the blind & mute man last week – how he had these physical conditions, but they were a result of being “demonized.” So what we learned last week was how to resist the kingdom of darkness so that if our sickness, disease, infirmity, or any other physical, mental, or emotional issue is demonically inspired, how to fight it off and receive our healing. And it is with those “It is writtens”, using God’s Word, we have the power to destroy the kingdom of darkness and resist the devil. This is how we can run off the works of the devil and become healed & whole like this blind & mute man did on that day – by seeing what we need to see and saying what we need to say. Amen! THE HEALING OF THE MAN WITH DROPSY Now this week, I want us to move into another account of healing where a man was made whole from a unique kind of disease called “dropsy.” This healing is mentioned in Luke 14:1-6. Now in verse one, our story begins – “Now it happened, as He went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath, that they watched Him closely.” So, this host was not just any old Pharisee; he was one of the rulers of the Pharisees. In other words, he was the head-honcho! Therefore, you have to know this was a nice house and a prestigious dinner that Jesus was invited to. However, their motives were not completely pure in their hospitality. This is obvious by what is said at the end of verse one … Notice how “they watched Him closely”: Now they were obviously not watching him closely to be blessed by Him. No, they were watching him closely to find fault with Him and accuse Him. You know, this is what someone who is offended does with those they are offended with: they will look for something else that will further substantiate their offense. But guess what the one will do that is not only not offended, but truly loves the other person? They will only see the good in them, magnifying their positives and not their negatives. Yes, you will watch closely or listen carefully to the person or thing that your heart is inclined towards. We need to understand too that they were watching Him closely because they expected Him to break the Sabbath somehow, likely by healing someone. This is faith- is it not!?! They were watching, looking intently, for Him to do good on this Sabbath like He had done before (i.e. The healing of the man with the withered hand). Therefore, these Pharisees and religious leaders were in more faith for a healing than most of us Christians. Then notice verse two – “And behold, there was a certain man before Him who had dropsy.” The word “before (Him)” reveals to us that this man was “in front of” Him. He might have been sitting across the table from Jesus. We don’t know. But herein lies a good principle – our ministry is what is “in front of” us (i.e. before us). Too many times we are looking for opportunities to minister and miss the opportunities that are before us. For example, there are many out there who feel called to preach and teach and complain because they don’t have anywhere to preach. Listen, there are plenty of places for us to minister: the prisons are always looking for ministers. Nursing homes would love to have you come minister there. Stop just looking for places you want to go, and go where the need is. So, what is before you, or let me ask it this way—what are the needs that you see and are staring you in the face? Oftentimes, those are the people or things that God wants you to directly minister to or simply pray for. Then notice who it was that they brought before Jesus – It “was a certain man … who had dropsy” Now we will get into what this specific disease was because I doubt there are too many folks here today that know what “dropsy” is, but how many of you know that you don’t even need to know what this is to know you don’t want it? Now this brings up an important point: Did you know that you do not really need to know everything about a certain infirmity or disease to get healed of it? In fact, it is generally those who know everything there is to know about a certain disease that have the hardest time getting healed of it. They spend countless hours doing research on their illness, and the problem with this is it can fuel the unbelief that would hinder the miracle. Now I am not saying that we should bury our head in the sand and be naïve, but there is a proper balance to simply being informed and letting that information spawn unbelief in our hearts. Then in verse three, Jesus asked those in this ruler of the Pharisees’ home – “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” Notice that Jesus did not ask what was “unlawful.” Rather, He asked what was “lawful.” You see, religion focuses only on what you can’t do. Yes, the Law liked to focus on what you can’t do and what you aren’t doing. The royal law- the law of love- focuses more on what you can do and what we should be doing. So, for Jesus to ask what was lawful, He is coming at it from a New Covenant perspective. Things like healing, doing good, setting people free, etc. were never forbidden under the Law. Therefore, instead of majoring on what we shouldn’t be doing, they should have majored on what we have the right to be doing. The Old Covenant mentality says, “I got to do this to get that.” The New Covenant mentality says, “I get to do this because I already got that.” So in verse four, we see how Jesus healed this man with dropsy – “He took him, and healed him, and let him go.” Notice the process of healing here: Jesus first “took” him which indicates that He laid hold of this man with His hands. Then He healed him, and then “let him go” – meaning that He set him free and released him. That shows me that sometimes healing is sandwiched in between laying hold of something and not letting it go until they are healed. Finally, in verse five, Jesus used an analogy to drive His point home: He said, “Which of you having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit, will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day?” Jesus here compared the healing of a person to helping an animal in an attempt to show us how, just as we would not think of not helping our animals, we should not think twice about helping a person who is in physical need. And in this instance, the pit was being compared to the infirmity. Church, sickness, disease, and infirmity is not a blessing. It is a “pit” – that is, a trap or an inescapable place! Hell is referred to as a bottomless pit. So here infirmities are likened to the same thing hell is – a pit. Therefore, sickness and infirmity are in no way a part of the liberty that we have been called unto. It is evil. It is hell. It is a curse. And therefore, we are redeemed from it. Amen. Which is the point I want to make today – what we are redeemed from. Now as promised, I wanted to describe to you what this specific disease is – the disease Jesus associated a pit with: This term “dropsy” is not a common medical term today, but it might be referred to today as “edema” (a-deme-a), which is a disease characterized by fluid retention and swelling. “Dropsy” is a symptom of a disease of the heart, liver, kidneys, or brain. This condition involves the accumulation of water fluid in the body cavities or in the limbs. Thus, other translations say that he was a man whose body, arms and legs were swollen. But there is power in specifically knowing what these things that our so-called experts have given names to are because then we can uncover what we are redeemed from. You see, the fact that we are not that familiar with the term “dropsy” is a point I’d like to make today. In the Bible, there were a lot of physical conditions, diseases and illnesses, that were unique to the day & age they lived in. And while we can certainly associate these symptoms with certain diseases & illnesses that we have in our world today, the fact is there were certainly physical conditions they had back then and in the part of the world that they lived in that differ from the physical issues that we deal with here in the United States in 2024. One of our most detailed examples of this is found in Deuteronomy chapter 28 where the Lord gave His covenant people a long list of curses that would come upon them if they broke His law and didn’t heed His voice. Yes, there is a very specific list of issues that they would have if they did not keep His commandments. Now in Deuteronomy 28:1-14, we first see God give them the blessings of keeping His law and following His voice. But then in verses 15-68, which is a whole lot more verses than the blessings, we have some pretty horrendous curses for violating His law and not following His voice. These curses ranged from physical diseases (some of which we are going to look at today), mental & emotional issues, financial & business problems, and relationship issues such as brokenness in the family arena. It was bad! And it was clear that all of these things described in these 50-plus verses were considered “curses.” You see, the dictionary defines being “cursed” as being “damned, doomed, devoted to destruction, (Now we don’t want to get “D’s” in this class, amen? We want to get “A’s and B’s”- Absolutely Blessed!) afflicted or plagued.” In our modern-day terminology, we might say it is to be “jinxed, unlucky, or unfortunate.” So why would anyone call any of these horrible things “blessings” or “blessings in disguise?” A lot of people in the church today do. They consider certain things like cancer, the death of a child, certain handicaps, etc. “blessings,” in an attempt to find the silver lining when those things happen. No, friends, a curse is a curse, and a blessing is a blessing! Don’t try to make things that God calls a curse out to be a blessing in disguise. We are told here that these bad things are curses for violating God’s law and if you look at what God said through the law to the children of Israel, He said that they would dwell in the land of promise, promising them healing, prosperity, and peace (i.e. wholeness). So it’s rather clear from God’s perspective what is a blessing and what is a curse, and it’s pretty much common sense. Yes, a blessing in God’s eyes is what a blessing is to most people, and a curse in God’s eyes is what a curse is to most people. Now it is rather clear that there are those of us who seem to have these types of things called “curses” in the Bible that follow us around, that are abnormal and unnatural. I’m referring to those things that are reoccurring and seem harder to shake than the average infirmity. It’s for this reason that we have people cite causes of this and refer to them as “generational curses.” Now there are such things … In Exodus 34:6-7, the Lord God told Moses – “And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.’” Now most of us are guilty of reading verses like this and focusing on the negative part – that God by no means will clear the guilty, but will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and grandchildren, even to the 3rd and 4th generations. But did you notice that it works in reverse as well? Verse 6 teaches about how merciful and gracious God is, how longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth He is. And how He keeps mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. But I want you to notice that when this “generational cursing” is referred to, it just says this is for the “guilty” and doesn’t quantify who all and how many we are talking about. However, for “thousands” He forgives iniquity, transgressions, and sin! Glory to God! So this isn’t one of those kind of things where there’s going to be five out of ten families that are going to be cursed and the other half won’t have to deal with it. No, what we are seeing here is that God’s propensity is for blessing, not cursing. Yes, He is the forgiver, being full of mercy and gracious. Therefore, the “guilty” referred to here has to be some abnormal, accentuated kind of sin for it to not fall under the umbrella of His grace & mercy. In other words, in order to be the guilty that the Lord is referring to here, a generation has to do some pretty heinous things or some specific kind of sin that falls outside of all of this mercy God tends to give. And I don’t think we really need to speculate as to what this is because in Exodus chapter 20 we get a glimpse: When giving the children of Israel the Ten Commandments, The Lord said in verses 4-6, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” Notice that the specific thing that God said sparked Him to jealousy and to visit their iniquities up to the 3rd & 4th generations is idolatry. Yes, worshipping graven images of false gods is something that the Lord specifically noted would cause these generational curses upon family blood lines. These are those whom the Lord says, hate Him. This is why we see some of the most impoverished nations in the world as being those who practice idolatry. It’s because this particular sin hates God and opens people up to the fruit of their gods, which is never anything close to a blessing. But my point is that, odds are we are not under some generational curse that requires some special form of ministry to break. No, the odds are we fall under this “thousands” category that has been shown a whole lot of mercy, grace, and compassion from the Lord even though we all have certainly sinned and fallen short of His glory. Praise the Lord! But again, it is clear that there are things that might be tendencies and are hard to shake. So we need to learn how to break the power of these things, but I believe one very important thing to break first is the belief system that we have. And if we believe that there is something that has power over us whether that be some kind of generational curse or some demonic power or spirit, then that can hinder our healing & deliverance because in our hearts we’ve given it a right to be there. Church, I can promise you that nothing of the kingdom of darkness has the right or power to be there. These things are dealt with through the same means that the big generational curse was dealt with that we were all born under. Now you might be wondering – What is this generational curse that we all have in our bloodline? I’m referring to the ultimate curse of Adam’s sin. You see, the apostle Paul taught us that “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—" (Romans 5:12). Well, that sounds like a generational curse to me, how about you? So this generational curse of sin started with Adam in the Garden. Because of Adam’s sin we are all born under the curse of sin. This curse causes us all to be born with a sinful nature which is the true catalyst of any sinful behavior we exhibit. As King David said, “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me” (Psalm 51:5). And if left undealt with, sin will run its course and it will end in eternal separation from God Himself. This is the ultimate generational curse. So how was this curse dealt with? Jesus had to come and become the propitiation for our sin, dying on the Cross in our place. So in order for you and I to become cured of this curse of sin, we must call upon the name of the Lord, receiving His work of grace, and be born again. Once this occurs, that generational curse of Adam is removed, and we become a new creation where old things pass away and all things become new (See Second Corinthians 5:17). Yes, we go from being cursed to being blessed of God. No, not by our own works or by any other self-effort on our part, but by simply receiving the grace of God by faith. Amen? Well, if this simple action is what took care of the biggest generational curse, then why would we think that we have to jump through all of hoops to get free from other curses? As we’ve learned already through this series, the same way we got saved is the same way we receive all of the other benefits of our salvation – by grace through faith. So if I want to get free from these pesky little issues that plague my life, then I just need to receive the grace of God by faith in Him. Amen! The apostle Paul teaches us this: Romans 5:17-18 says, “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ! Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” Yes, the remedy to break the curse of Adam’s sin and the consequence of your parents’ sin are both found in Jesus Christ. Any person born again in Jesus Christ has been made brand new and you are no longer under the curse of any sin. Consider this verse: Again, Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]” Regardless of what has happened before, once you are in Christ it is all made brand new. This one decision to repent and choose Jesus as your Savior ends any generational curse or consequence that you feel prone to. If salvation breaks the ultimate generational curse of original sin, it will also break the consequence of any sins of your fathers. The challenge for you is to continue to walk out what God has done in you. If you are in Christ, you are no longer a prisoner to your past, you have been set free. Honestly sometimes the scars of your past life remain but you don’t have to remain victim to them because Jesus has set you on a new path. As Jesus has declared in John 8:36, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” And it is for this reason that I tend towards believing in “generational blessings” because of what Christ Jesus has done for us. You and I were born under a curse and a consequence. The curse of original sin and the consequence of our parents’ behaviors. The good news is that just as sinful behaviors can be passed down, so can Godly behaviors. Once you are in Christ you can begin a new family heritage of people walking with God from one generation to the next. Yes, because you belong to him, you can transform your family line from generational cursing to generational blessing. You are new in Christ, you are free in Christ, so walk in that newness and freedom. Regardless of what has happened before, because of Christ you have victory. I implore you to live in that victory and change the course of your family’s future for generations to come. REVIEW
If one thing has been made crystal clear over the past several months, it’s that God certainly wants us to be made whole. No, there is not one part of our lives that God does not want healed and prosperous. We see this threaded throughout God’s Word and have specifically been looking at it in First Thessalonians 5:23 where the apostle Paul shows us God’s will to “sanctify us completely” and that our “whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless.” So our Heavenly Father most definitely wants every part of us completely and wholly healed just like any good parent wants this for their children. Yes, there are no loving parents out there that don’t want the best for their children and that, if their kids were suffering with some illness or infirmity, wouldn’t take that thing from them if they could. Well, our Father God is no different. He loves us more than any of us love our own children. So if we want our kids to be made whole in every area of their life, then you can be sure that God wants that for His children. But the important thing to understand is that just because God desires this for His kids, doesn’t mean it’s automatically going to happen, or that He is going to make it happen. That part is apparent. No, love always gives free will, so God is never going to force wholeness on anyone. Just like you can’t make your kids make the right decisions for their well-being, God won’t do that with us either. Now He will certainly show us how to be made whole. Yes, He will provide us with all the instructions necessary and has even paid the price for that quality of life – doing that by sending us His Word and healing us of all our infirmities. But making us drink from that well of salvation is not the way God does things. He will let us remain broken, busted, and disgusted if we so desire to continue down that road. But again, the Lord is so good to give us His Word that is chalk full of examples as to how one is made whole and can receive the Father’s heart to see them blessed. So each week, we have been looking at the various examples of how individuals were made whole in the Gospels, and last week, we looked at the last healing Jesus ever performed during His earthly ministry where, when He was being arrested in the Garden, the high priest’s servant, Malchus, had his ear cut off and Jesus put it back on for him. We learned a bunch of good nuggets last week including how the name of Jesus has enough power to make the Lord’s enemies draw back, how receiving a betrayal like Judas’ kiss is not all that uncommon, and how the Lord tried to prepare His disciples for the temptation to come by asking them to get prayed up. But when it came to Jesus’ last healing, we asked two very important questions: Therefore, this healing of Malchus’ ear teaches us two very important lessons: 1.WHO WILL JESUS HEAL? 2.WHAT WILL JESUS HEAL? And essentially, we learned that if Jesus would heal this man who had come to arrest Jesus, then He’ll apparently heal His enemies. And if He will heal His enemies, how much more will He heal His friends? On top of that, if Jesus would heal Malchus’ ear – a part of his body that wasn’t absolutely necessary – then wouldn’t He heal anything that might be wrong with us, whether it’s imperative or not? So if you missed that teaching, do yourself a favor and go back and watch it, listen to it, etc. And while I’m on it, there are several ways you can do this:
So there is no excuse for any of us to be able to say, “I never had a chance to hear the truth” – not at this church, at least. Yes, all of these things are available essentially for free and they’re convenient. So let’s take advantage of the technology we’ve been blessed with and continue in His Word. Amen? THE BLIND & MUTE MAN So today, I would like us to look at another account of healing in Jesus’ ministry – one that teaches us a lot about how things work in the kingdom of God when it comes to us being made whole. This morning, we are going to look at the example of the healing of the blind & mute man, a relatively obscure healing that we are told about in the Gospels. So as we begin looking at this story, let me begin by talking about while physical & emotional healing are a big part of being made whole, there are other things that plague some people’s lives that are NOT physical nor are they psychological. Yes, there are some things that keep us from the healing & wholeness God wills for us that are spiritual in nature. In fact, if you study the life & ministry of Jesus, you see Him doing more than just healing people; you see Him spending a lot of time dealing with the kingdom of darkness, casting out demons. And this is something that I believe we have lost sight of in the church today. You see, we have the tendency in the church today of looking at everything that is broken in one’s life as being either physical or psychological. Yes, every condition whether it be cancer, virus, diseases or depression, panic attacks, or seizures are given a name and labeled by the world as being purely physical or neurological conditions. But when one considers the truth we see in the Scriptures, there is obviously a big part the demonic plays in all of this – particularly when you see Jesus dealing with demons just about as much as He was healing people. In fact, a lot of times we see Jesus healing someone of what seemed to be a physical condition by exorcising a demon from that person. Now that does not mean that every physical problem is demonic, nor does it mean that every physical issue is natural either. Sometimes a specific physical or psychological condition might be demonic, but other times, the very same symptoms might be simply natural. The key is having spiritual discernment to know when something is demonic or not. But my point is that there are a lot more things that are demonic in nature than we have recognized, and we cannot expect the world to acknowledge that because how will they be able to recognize spiritual things? But the fact is if there are more things that are demonic than we realize, then this is also a big factor with us being healed because we need to be freed from any and all demonic control or influence in order to truly be made whole. Now this healing takes place in just one verse of one Gospel – Matthew 12:22. This verse reads – “Then one was brought to Him who was demon-possessed, blind and mute; and He healed him, so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw.” Notice that this verse begins with there being one brought to Jesus who was “demon-possessed.” You know, there has been a lot of debate over the years over how much a born again, Spirit-filled believer can be affected by the kingdom of darkness. Folks will say, “A Christian cannot be demon-possessed.” But I think the issue is in the terminology here – demon-possessed – it is important not to get hung up on semantics. The gist of the Greek word used for demonic “possession” is simply to be “demonized” – or, “to be under the control and dominion of an evil spirit.” Now whether these demons are in someone or on someone is not the point of emphasis. The point is that there are people out there who are under the control of, or being influenced by, demons, and anyone who has been a Christian for any period of time can attest to the fact that there are other people in the church who have absolutely been under the control & dominion of demons at certain points. No, that doesn’t mean that their heads are spinning around and they’re spitting up pea soup; it just means that they have yielded themselves to the demonic and are under the sway of sin. And sometimes this demonic presence manifests itself in certain physical & mental conditions – of that we can be sure because of all of the situations in the Bible of people being plagued with conditions and the demonic realm is specifically noted as the cause of these physical symptoms. So I say all of this to say that there are certainly demonic issues that people have that have kept them from being made whole. And we need to learn how to deal with these spiritual issues in order to be completely sanctified & wholly preserved. So let’s look at this story now and learn some ways in which we can live free from the demonic and be made whole of not just the physical or mental things, but also the spiritual things. Now in this case, notice that this man was “blind and mute.” So this guy had double trouble – not only could he not see, he couldn’t speak either. But I want you to notice that these physical infirmities were a direct result of a demon’s control and dominion over this person. This shows us that things like blindness, deafness, speech impediments, etc. are the fruit of the kingdom of darkness and are NOT the fruit of the kingdom of God. No, when people got healed of things like this, Jesus told them that the kingdom of God had come near to them. In other words, when God’s kingdom is in control, we see people being delivered and set free from these infirmities; but when the devil and demons are in control, we see people bound by these infirmities. No, don’t let anyone fool you – none of these physical infirmities are a product of the kingdom of God being in control or having dominion; they are what happens when the devil is in control and has dominion. One thing worthy of noting here is that we see in some of the physical healings that Jesus performed, the person’s physical affliction was a result of the person being “demonized.” We see this in the healing of the woman with the spirit of infirmity in Luke chapter 13 and also in the healing of the mute man in Matthew chapter 9. In fact, we see in the ministry of Jesus that He dealt with demonic issues a lot—and, like in this instance, sometimes those demonic issues were the source of the physical infirmities. I bring this to our attention because if this is what we see a lot of in the four Gospels, then we can conclude that a lot of what we see afflicting people today is also likely demonic in nature. I believe that this is one of the reasons that we do not see the results in praying for the physically sick and mentally ill like we should: it is because we judge everything according to our own understanding and experiences. In other words, we put everything in our own little box—thinking that every time someone is diagnosed with some kind of illness that they need to be physically healed or thinking that every time someone has emotional issues that they need to be emotionally healed. This is not always the case when you look in the Word of God … The fact is, sometimes these things are demonic in nature, so we need to be spiritually in tune enough to be able to sense what the root of the infirmity is. This is an important part of getting the results we desire. On the flipside of this, we don’t need to go into the other ditch of looking for the devil and demons in every negative situation either. Sometimes people do this in themselves, thinking that every impure thought and feeling is “the devil.” Friends, you cannot crucify demons and you cannot cast out the flesh; you must crucify the flesh and cast our demons. Likewise, I believe sometimes we are trying to heal the demonic problem when we should be casting it out. Notice then that this verse says, “and He healed Him …” Now it is worth noting here that even though this blind and mute man was in this situation because he was demonized, this verse still says that Jesus healed him—showing us that sometimes when someone is healed, it was a direct result of a demon losing control over them. Along these lines, and in a similar account of healing, we are told – “And when the demon was cast out, the mute spoke” (Matthew 9:33). I want you to notice that the demonic possession here and in other places (see Mark 9:17) was specifically tied together with being deaf, mute and dumb. Have you ever wondered why these demonic possessions resulted in these things? Do you figure it might be because the devil doesn’t want us to speak because he fears our words? Do you suppose it might be because the enemy does not want us to hear and see because he knows how powerful our ear and eye gates are? Let’s focus in on the power of our words since that is the state of this healing we are looking at: If you study the Book of Proverbs, you will find exactly why the enemy would want to “mute” us: Proverbs 15:4 says, “A wholesome (or, healthy) tongue is a tree of life…” What does this mean? Well, the tree of life did what? It gave eternal, everlasting life, right? So, how does one become satisfied with long life (see Psalm 91:16)? It is through a whole and healthy tongue! We see this in First Peter 3:10-12 when he was quoting the 34th Psalm – how long life and good days all along the way is partly a product of refraining from injurious speech. Proverbs 16:24 says, “Pleasant words are like a honeycomb, sweetness to the soul and health to the bones.” In other words, pleasant words have a similar effect on us as good honey does: they positively affect us both emotionally and physically. Proverbs 18:20 says, “A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; from the produce of his lips he shall be filled.” This teaches us that our words have the capability of producing satisfaction and fulfillment within us. Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Notice that this verse specifically says that those who love it (love what? Well, this could refer to the power that is in the tongue or the life that our tongue has the power to produce [Compare Psalm 34- love life]). You see, some have gotten what I call “spiritually superstitious” regarding their words. But it is not just the frivolous words we slip up and speak that holds the power; it is the words that we really mean and that come out of our hearts (i.e. love) that hold the power to life and death. It is those words that we “love” that we will eat the fruit of. And, of course, we have the Scriptures in James chapter three that also teach us the importance of our words: he says in verses 3-4- “Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires.” Church, these verses teach us the absolute power that is in the tongue! The subject matter is “turning” things—like the body of a horse or a ship. Likewise, we can “turn” our lives and our physical bodies through our words! Amen. Now back to Matthew chapter 12 … After Jesus healed this blind and mute man, we are told how the people responded to this miracle. Verse 23 says, “And all the multitudes were amazed and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’” By asking this question of could Jesus be the Son of David, they are questioning whether He was their Messiah. And because of the religious leaders’ jealousy, we see next how they responded … Verse 24 begins with – “Now when the Pharisees heard it …” Heard what? When they heard the multitudes wonder whether Jesus was the promised Messiah. So when they heard people leaning towards this, they rebutted those statements with something else. You know, this is what jealous people with their own selfish agendas will do—they will attempt to tear others down with their words. And that same spirit that was working in the Pharisees here still does this today. Most of the time, when you hear people tearing down someone else with their words, spreading gossip and slandering them, what they are doing is trying to exalt themselves. In other words, what slander’s intention usually is, is not to tear the other one down, but to lift itself up—because in that person’s insecurity, they need others to come down, so that they don’t look as bad. So what exactly did the Pharisees start saying? Verse 24 goes on to say, “This fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons.” This name “Beelzebub” started with the Philistines in describing the god of Ekron. It originally meant “lord of the flies” by the Philistines and later came to mean “lord of the manure” by the Hebrews. So this describes Satan as the ruler of the pesky demon spirits (i.e. “lord of the flies”) and the ruler over environments where rottenness, stench, and waste prevails. Then in verse 25, we are told that Jesus something – “(Jesus) said to them …” It is important to note here that Jesus did not refute the Pharisees accusations to the multitudes, but rather to the Pharisees themselves. This is another good wisdom nugget – don’t try to defend yourself to others, but rather, in humility and love, go to the ones who are deceived and attempt to reason with them. Now in verses 25-28, the obvious point that Jesus was making was that it was completely irrational for them to accuse Him of using the “ruler of demons” to cast out demons because that would be Satan pitting his kingdom against itself. Well, how many of God’s people say basically the same thing about Him today? They say that God is putting a sickness & disease on one of His children to teach them something, to perfect them or to discipline them. Well, since God has clearly revealed Himself in the Word as our healer and Jesus went about healing everyone who came to Him in faith, would it make sense for Him to be healing in one moment and then to put sickness on someone in another? Not at all! No, this would be as Jesus described it, a kingdom or house divided against itself. Another example is when Jesus stilled the storm. How many people equate all of these natural disasters to being “acts of God?” Well, Jesus stilled the storm—proving to us that not all storms or acts of nature are of God because Jesus would have been acting against His Father there and they would have been a divided kingdom. Now Jesus’ statement that “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand” has another meaning to us: Of course, Jesus was specifically referring to how God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom cannot succeed when operating against themselves, but I believe that this has another very important truth contained in it… If we, ourselves, are not set and solid on what we believe, we will have a hard time standing as well. This is why James said that a double minded man is unstable in all of his ways –because when part of you is saying one thing but another part of you is thinking another, you are not established and able to stand, and are therefore unstable. And this is a reason why you see so many of God’s people ruled over by the kingdom of darkness. It’s because they are trying to resist the devil on one hand, but are submitting to him on the other. No, we must, as James 4:7 says, submit ourselves to God and then resist the devil and he will flee from us. But if we are not truly submitting to God in our lives, then how will we be able to stand against the wiles of the devil? Let me give you an example – Say, I am trying to resist sickness & disease in my body, but I am submitting to slander & gossip coming out of my mouth. How can I expect the sickness & disease to leave when I’m okay with the slander & gossip staying? Now this does not mean that we cannot be healed if we have any sin in our life. Don’t hear what I’m not saying. But we don’t need to confuse ourselves by trying to stand against some of the devil’s devices and then accepting other ones. So if you are a house divided against itself – trying to serve God with one foot in the kingdom of God but with another foot in sin – then your house cannot stand. And what does the Bible say your house is? It says that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, amen? So what do you reckon is going to happen to our body if we have conflicting behavior in our lives? It will be an uphill battle, I can promise you that. And you most definitely won’t be able to stand against the devil. And did you know that this is what the word “resist” – that’s used for resisting the devil – literally means? It means to stand against. In fact, it’s actually the word where we get the word antihistamine from, which is a medicine that is used to stand against the histamines our bodies produce which cause the things like runny noses, itching, swelling, etc. Well, if we want to be able to stand, we’ve got to have our house working together, not against itself. Amen? But notice how Jesus then says in Matthew 12:28 – “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Did you just see that? Jesus just told us how He had the power to cast out demons. It was not because He was the Son of God, but it was because of the Spirit of God. Jesus confirms this in verse 31 when He talks about blaspheming the Holy Spirit. Jesus said there that people accusing Him of casting out demons by Beelzebub was blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. What this shows us is that Jesus equated His ability to cast out demons to the Holy Spirit working through Him. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit was the agent by which Jesus cast out devils, then He did not do it simply because He was the Son of God. Amen! So guess what this teaches us? That the Holy Spirit is the power by which we cast out demons! And if I need to chase off some demons, how do I do it? By yielding to, being led by, and flowing in the power of the Holy Ghost! You see, the more full I get of the Holy Spirit, the less the kingdom of darkness will be allowed to reside. And at the same time, the anointing will destroy the yoke that the kingdom of darkness has erected in my life. Yes, like a house of cards, the Holy Spirit, with just the slightest move of His finger, can destroy everything that the devil has spent years building in one’s life. And notice how Jesus says in this verse “surely the kingdom of God has come upon you.” Again, when demons are expelled and driven out, this is a manifestation of the kingdom of God. You could say it this way – The kingdom of God is ruling when demons are no longer controlling and ruling a person or place. Then in verse 29, we have the parable Jesus gives us of the binding of the strong man. Jesus said, “Or how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house.” You know, we always hear this verse taught like the strong man is an evil, ruling spirit and we are the ones who must bind him in order to effectively exorcise the demonic influence from someone’s life. Well, I’d like to offer a different perspective on this verse: When Jesus said, “how can one enter,” what if Jesus was referring to the one who is entering the house as the demon who had entered the person in the previous verses? On top of that, this “plundering” of someone’s house sounds more like what the thief would do, not the giver of life, right? So let’s read this from a different perspective: How can an evil spirit enter into a person’s life and plunder it unless it first binds the strong man? Wow! Now that opens up a new perspective, doesn’t it? You see, the “strong man” here is that strong spirit of a man, the new recreated part of us on the inside that it full of power, authority and glory. So the devil cannot just come in and plunder our goods. He must first have that strong man – the part of us that has all authority – bound. Well, how does He do that? By tempting us to compromise and make wrong choices! If he can get our house divided against itself, our strong man is bound, and he can then plunder our lives. Church, we have been given much more authority than we realize! We can rule over sin, sickness, and brokenness by the power of the Holy Spirit and the power that is in our tongues. So with those “It is writtens”, using God’s Word, we have the power to destroy the kingdom of darkness and resist the devil. This is how we can run off the works of the devil and become healed & whole like this blind & mute man did on that day. By seeing what we need to see and saying what we need to say. Amen! REVIEW
So we have been learning how one can be made whole. No, not just the fact that He wants us healed & whole, but how we all can receive from God His will for us. And we’ve learned that God wants us healed & whole from our golden text for this series among many other Scriptures. First Thessalonians 5:23 saying, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” And each week, we have been looking at the various examples of healing in the Gospels – knowing that they teach us how one approaches the Lord for healing and walks away whole. We’ve looked at examples such as Peter’s Mother-in-Law, the Ten Lepers, the Woman with the Issue of Blood, Jairus’ Daughter, the Woman with the Spirit of Infirmity, among a few others. And last week, we looked at the healing of the Nobleman’s Son, learning the important role that walking by faith plays in receiving our miracle. Now this week, I would like us to look at an example that beautifully illustrates how this being made whole works. It’s the story of the healing of the paralytic carried by his four friends. Now this story is told in three of the four Gospels – in Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, and Luke 5:17-26 – and I want to highlight something from all three of them. Notice how each Gospel writer describes the reaction of the people to this miracle:
Needless to say, the people were awestruck and taken aback by seeing something done that transcended natural laws. And so let’s look specifically at what took place in this story – In doing this, we will primarily camp on Mark & Luke’s Gospel. Now the story begins in Mark 2:1 with – “And again He entered Capernaum after some days, and it was heard that He was in the house.” So just like in the story that we looked at last week of the healing of the nobleman’s son, we are entering Capernaum again after some days. Then we are told that it was heard that Jesus was in the house. Now you thought that your kids or grandkids came up with that hip saying that such and such is in the house, didn’t you? But no, this Scripture says that Jesus was “in the house” a long time before your children ever said that! And I like to compare this statement with Jesus being in the boat from the example of Jesus’ disciples and Him being caught out in the middle of the sea when the storm arose. Well, just the fact that Jesus was in that boat should have assured His disciples that they weren’t going to sink & drown. No, Jesus’ presence in the boat ought to have produced in them the confidence that they were going to get to the other side. Likewise, if Jesus is in our boat – yes, if Jesus is in our house – then we are going to be okay if the Healer lives within us. Amen? Then in verse 2, we are told – “Immediately many gathered together, so that there was no longer room to receive them, not even near the door. And He preached the word to them.” Notice that this verse says, “And He preached the Word to them”: Did you know that Jesus’ ministry generally consisted of three parts—teaching, preaching, & healing? Actually, the Gospels say that He was teaching (43 times), preaching (19 times), and preaching & teaching (6 times). This shows us the pattern that we should do about twice as much teaching as we do preaching. That’s why we do so much teaching & preaching here at our Healing Schools – because just like those who came to “hear and be healed” in the Gospels, we need to spend time hearing and hearing the Word so that the faith can come to be healed. But let’s look over at Luke’s Gospel again and notice who it was that Jesus was preaching the Word to … Luke 5:17 says, “Now it happened on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting by, who had come out of every town of Galilee, Judea, and Jerusalem. And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.” Now how many of you know that these Pharisees and teachers of the law who had come to sit and listen to His teachings were likely not there listening with open hearts. Now there might have been a “Nicodemus” or two in the bunch who sincerely were seeking the truth, but from what we see throughout the rest of the four Gospels, the likelihood is that the vast majority of these religious leaders were there to accuse and find fault. On top of that, these religious leaders were taking up seats that people with faith could’ve had! But I want you to notice that last sentence in verse 17 – “And the power of the Lord was present to heal them.” The Greek language indicates that the Lord’s power was in their midst (Greek en) for the purpose of (Greek eis) healing them. The “them” here implies that it was referring to those fault-finding religious leaders who were there just to criticize Him, right? So, this shows us that God’s healing power was in that house to heal even those who had assembled with wrong hearts. Wow! This shows us two very important things:
But let’s move on to the one in this story who was in position to receive his wholeness … Luke 5:18-19 says, “Then behold, men brought on a bed a man who was paralyzed, whom they sought to bring in and lay before Him. And when they could not find how they might bring him in, because of the crowd, they went up on the housetop and let him down with his bed through the tiling into the midst before Jesus.” Now what if these men would have been like most believers – who might have prayed before they came and said, “Lord, if it is Your will to heal Joe, we ask you to open the door, but if it’s not, then close the door”? Well, they would have shown up and seen that the house was already filled and turned around and left, believing that it wasn’t the Lord’s will to heal their friend today. But would that have been correct? Absolutely not! No, these men did not take a closed door as evidence that it was not God’s will for their friend to be healed and they sought a way to get him in and got the healing they desired. I wonder how many people never received their healing because they made this kind of mistake. Maybe they were not persistent enough or they let a circumstance, or a lack of manifestation convince them of a lie. Whatever the situation, I believe that there have been more situations in our lives where we did not receive what God has graciously provided than we would care to know about. But not these guys! This verse says that when they saw this “closed door” they hit the roof! Amen! And when they had “broken through” they made their own door! You see, in Mark’s account of this story, he specifically says, “So when they had broken through …” (Mark 2:4). No, these guys didn’t let the situation keep them from what they came for. They “broke through” the thing keeping them from Jesus, which depending what perspective you had, was the “ceiling.” I wonder how many apparent “ceilings” – that is, things that limit us from going higher – have kept God’s people from that exceeding, abundantly, above all they could ever ask or think (See Ephesians 3:20)? Again, it’s more than we would care to know. But again, those ceilings /roofs are not signs from God that he doesn’t want us to go higher. They are just things that we have to determine to break through. And God is all about these break throughs! In fact, in Second Samuel 5:20, we see the Lord called “the Lord of the Breakthrough.” This is yet another description given to us of God: He specializes in breaking through our enemies that are before us! Therefore, we cannot let a closed door, or a seeming wall, dissuade us from getting our healing. We have to be persistent and have bulldog faith, being undaunted by the obstacles! However, there is an important point that we need to learn from this account in 2nd Samuel: David inquired of the Lord before he presumptuously went up against these Philistines. He asked the Lord – “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will You deliver them into my hand?” And the Lord responded to him with- “Go up, for I will doubtless deliver the Philistines into your hand.” (Verse 19). You see, hearing from God and getting a Word from Him is an important part of experiencing “break throughs” because we need to know the Lord’s manner of providing for us. However, the fact remains that we have no record that the four friends and the paralyzed man got a “Word from God.” They just pressed in and got what they came for, but there is certainly a place for asking the Lord and hearing from Him so that we are not spinning our wheels. But the fact remains that these four friends broke through the obstacle and did what they had to do to lower their friend into the house where Jesus was. Mark 2:5 says, and “when He saw their faith …” Church, true faith can be seen! James said that we can show others our faith by our works (James 2:18). It is easy for people to say that they are “in faith” but true, living faith is evidenced by her actions. So, how did Jesus see their faith? It was through their action of letting this man down through the roof. You only do something like this if you believe there is a reason to go through all of this. You don’t go to these kinds of extremes, lengths, etc. unless you are convinced that there is a good reason for it. This is how Jesus saw their faith. Now when it said that Jesus saw “their” faith, this did not exclude the paralyzed man either. How many of you know that this man had to have some faith to let His friends carry him up on the roof and then lower him down through it? But then a very important part of this story is the things that were said just before the miracle was performed: Notice how after Jesus saw their faith, “He said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven you.’” Then we are told – “And some of the scribes were sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, ‘Why does this Man speak blasphemies like this? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ But immediately, when Jesus perceived in His spirit that they reasoned thus within themselves, He said to them, ‘Why do you reason about these things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins’—He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” (See Mark 2:5-11) To me, it is so interesting that this comparison to forgiveness and healing is being made by the Lord. And notice how He said in verse 9 – “Which is easier to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk?’” Well, the obvious answer to this question is, it’s easier to say “your sins are forgiven you” because you cannot see it. But if we were to say, “Arise, take up your bed and walk,” we would have to see some sort of miraculous manifestation in order to know something happened. But did you know that the miraculous healing of our bodies is just as easy to “say”, and I would add, “see” as the forgiveness of one’s sins? And did you know why? Because they come from the same source and in the same package! Amen! And that’s what I want to talk to you about today - How Healing Works! And the answer is - it works just like forgiveness & salvation works! You know, I hear questions sometimes regarding this subject of healing that indicate a misunderstanding of how God works. I’ve heard people ask things like – “Why doesn’t God heal me? Why didn’t He heal them?” and I’ve heard people say things like “I’m just waiting on God to heal me.” I believe this belief system, that we are waiting on God to do it, greatly decreases our likelihood of receiving from the Lord. Why? Because that is not how God has set it up. If we are going to learn to receive from the Lord more consistently, we must learn how He works. I understand that people see Him as a sovereign God and that He is, therefore, all powerful, but that does not mean that He is just up in heaven picking and choosing whom He is going to heal. This is not how He works! Although it is true that healing originates from God and that He alone has the power to heal, He did not set it up that He is going just do whatever He wants to do and that He would have the complete control. You see, we don’t ask questions like - “Why didn’t God save them?” or “Why won’t God save me?” do we? No, you don’t ever hear people say that. And why? Because we understand how salvation works, right? And we know it doesn’t work that way where it is just up to God. No, we understand that those who call on the name of the Lord are the ones who are saved, not just those who are called on by the Lord. Saints, the healing of our bodies happens the same way as the salvation of our souls! In fact, we find Scripture after Scripture that couples together our salvation and the healing of our bodies (Examples: Isaiah 53, Psalm 103:3, the ministry of Jesus, etc.) The words for “saved & salvation” come from the Greek words “sozo & soterion” which actually contain the reference to healing. Therefore, the very words that refer to the salvation of our souls are also referring to the healing of our bodies. And it is important to understand that the same way we are saved is the same way in which we are healed – for the word “sozo” means both (Colossians 2:6). Therefore, healing works the same way salvation does! So how does salvation work? There are essentially four questions that we need to ask to answer this question:
And the obvious answer is - YES! Second Peter 3:9 says that God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” (We see this also in Matthew 23:37 where Jesus made it clear that God often wanted to gather them under His wings, but they were not willing which can be compared with Malachi 4:2 which refers to the Lord having healing in His wings) First Timothy 2:4-6 states that God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (The context states that we are to be praying for all men including kings and all who are in authority- particularly to be saved. Now it is important for us to realize who some of these “kings” were! As ungodly as we think some of our authorities are today, they are nothing compared to the wickedness of those Paul was referring to. And I love how Paul goes on to say in verse 7- “for which I was appointed a preacher and teacher…” You see, near the end of chapter one, he describes the exceeding abundance of God’s grace in saving himself—who he says was the chief of sinners. But even this man, Saul of Tarsus, who murdered Christians, was saved and then, on top of that, was used to write 2/3rds of the New Testament.) So here, we have two witnesses that clearly indicate it is not God’s will for any person who walks on this planet to die in their sins, but it is His desire that all men and women receive the salvation that Jesus provided. So, it is the Lord’s will to save everyone! Therefore, we can conclude that if healing is a part of that salvation package, then it is the Lord’s will that every person be healed, and it is His desire to see all men and women to receive the healing that Jesus provided for them. Amen? (Compare the healing of the leper in Mark 1:40-45)
Ephesians 2:8-9 say, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Notice what is mentioned first in these verses - the grace! Paul said, “For by grace.” You could translate this phrase - “because of grace.” You see, as important as faith is (and we will get to this in a moment), grace is the most important – for if there was no grace provided, there would be nothing for us to have faith in. So, grace had to come. The provision had to be made. The promise had to have substance. Now, comes the “through faith” part. Some that move over into error concerning the grace of God begin to believe that it is all completely by grace and then begin to believe that since salvation was provided for all men on the Cross, everyone must be saved. Well, this discounts this phrase “through faith.” You see, everything in the kingdom must be received. It is not forced on us. It doesn’t happen just because God made a way for it to happen. No, God has made the provision, but that provision of grace must come through a channel or an avenue, and that way is “through faith.” Now notice how this process of salvation is explained in the rest of verse 8 into verse 9: “and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Now we understand how this applies to our salvation – that no number of good deeds one does can qualify them to be saved. Our salvation is completely a gift of God – meaning we can’t earn it or work to obtain it, and God’s reasoning behind this is that no one would be able to boast and say, “Hey, I did all of this and look what I’ve earned.” No, we understand that salvation is a free gift, cannot be earned and no one will be able to boast saying they earned it somehow. So now, let’s apply this to healing by retranslating that one word “saved” in this verse: “For by grace you have been healed through faith, and that healing is not of yourselves; healing is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” So, first of all, we see that healing is all “because of grace” – meaning, it has been provided for us all because of the grace of God. This is the first thing we need to get our hearts established in – the grace of God has provided healing and wholeness. And we need to understand that although this healing is received through faith, it is not obtained nor walked in “of ourselves” – meaning, we do not need to see our healing as having anything to do with us. The reason I say this is because of the subtleties of our flesh to believe that we are healed because of our “great faith” or because of our dietary habits or because of our exercise routines or because of our own righteousness, etc., etc., etc. No, no, no! You must always remain sober to the fact that receiving and walking in divine health and healing “is not of yourselves.” Sure, these things might tend towards walking in health and healing, but I encourage you to incline your heart towards the truth that it is ultimately a gift of God and not a result of your own works. The reason this is so important to understand is because it is easy for our heart to be deceived and begin to believe that our own works of diets, exercise, applying spiritual principles and even our “believing” is what obtained the healing. And if that is how we believe, we are in danger of taking our eyes off of the object of our faith – the Grace of God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is not a good place to be. Then, it is imperative that we know that it is all “because of grace” that we have been and can be healed. So grace is first then faith comes next.
Let’s again look at Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” Let’s address those two very important words that are involved in our salvation here - “through faith.” It is an undisputed fact, saints, the part faith plays in us receiving our salvation. Martin Luther, who was responsible for the great protestant reformation, began this movement by six very important words - “The just shall live by faith.” (Romans 1:17). This extremely important revelation shows us that it is not a bunch of religious duties and good deeds that save someone; but it is by our faith in the good deed of Jesus Christ on the Cross that wrought salvation for us. Therefore, we must now live by this faith! Amen! I don’t think I need to camp on this any further, right? We understand that we live by faith now and not by works, and that this is the only way we experience salvation! Amen?
The answer to this is an affirmative NO! It has been well-said that faith alone saves, but saving faith is never alone. The truth is: FAITH IS BOTH SEEN AND HEARD! The question is—Is a man justified by faith alone or is he justified by works and not by faith only? The key to understanding this is in understanding that Paul and James were referring to two different kinds of works. Notice that the apostle Paul was specifically referring to the works of the law and James never makes a reference in this passage to the works of the law. You see, there is what is called the works of faith that the Bible encourages. We see this reference in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 when Paul refers to their “work of faith.” As we’ve seen, Paul also calls these “works of faith” good works in Ephesians 2:10. So, what does this have to do with healing? Well, again, there is no difference between how we are saved and how we are healed, right? So, this shows that our faith for healing will contain some corresponding action! So, what are the works of faith? Well, one of the biggest that we see in the Word of God is the words of our mouth. You see, the Scriptures teach us that when one believes something in their heart and that truth is in there in abundance, the mouth will speak. In Second Corinthians 4:13, Paul said, “And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I believed and therefore I spoke,’ we also believe and therefore speak.” Finally, I want you to notice what Paul said in Romans 10:9-10 saves someone: Verse 9 says, “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” This is how we received Christ Jesus … We heard the gospel of our salvation in some shape, form, or fashion and then we believed in our heart the good news that Jesus is alive! Then we respond by confessing with our mouth with others to hear that Jesus is now our Lord and we make a public acknowledgment of the faith that is in our heart. This is how we were saved. Well, that is the same way we are healed, since salvation also describes healing … We hear the gospel of healing – maybe through a sermon or through a testimony – and then we believe in our heart that “gospel” that healing is available and has been provided. So then we respond by confessing with our mouth things like “I’m healed by the stripes of Jesus” or “If I can just get to that altar, something is going to happen.” Whatever we say, that is the confession of our faith, and that is what comes from faith in our heart. This is how we are healed. But notice how Romans 10:10 says specifically that with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So do you know what this teaches me? It teaches me that you can be completely convinced and persuaded in your heart of a truth, you can believe with all your heart, and still not experience sozo – freedom, deliverance, healing, protection, and being kept safe and sound. Wow! That is so powerful! Allow that to sink in for a moment… You see, the belief in our heart is super important. Don’t misunderstand that. That is what brings forth the righteousness in our life. In other words, the faith in our heart is what produces that right standing with God. That is the first step! But faith in your heart is not what produces “salvation” – soterion & sozo – in our life. It is the faith in our mouth that produces salvation! Amen! So “sozo” occurs in our life as we, number one, believe in our heart what has transpired in our lives as a result of Jesus’ resurrection and, number two, confess with our mouth Jesus’ Lordship as a result. In other words, our hearts must be established in what was accomplished through His death, burial and resurrection, and then our mouth must declare that He is, therefore, Lord until all His enemies are made His footstool. Amen! Church, this is how salvation works, and if it’s like getting saved works, then it’s how getting healed and whole works. It’s as simple as salvation – by grace through faith. Receive your salvation today! REVIEW
So we have been learning how one can be made whole. No, not just the fact that He wants us healed & whole, but how we all can receive from God His will for us. And we’ve learned that God wants us healed & whole from our golden text for this series among many other Scriptures. First Thessalonians 5:23 saying, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You see, this verse tells us that God cares about every aspect of our lives. It’s not just our spirit that God desires to be healed & whole. Sure, He wants His salvation to come to our spiritual nature to where we are saved & born-again, but he also cares about that same salvation being experienced in our souls. Yes, he wants us our soul – which includes our mind, will, and emotions – to be “saved” and made new. This means that He wants all of that tattered soul that has been damaged by the world to receive a complete transformation. But not only does He want all of our soul to be made whole, He likewise desires our physical body to experience the same salvation. Yes, God wills that our physical bodies experience freedom from sickness, deliverance from disease, and healing from infirmities just like our spirit & soul. Church, “salvation” describes much more than simply getting our names written in the Lamb’s Book of Life and saved from sin. The Greek word for “saved” describes being saved from more than just the power of sin and its penalty. The Greek word used for “saved” – the word sozo means to “save, heal, cure, preserve, keep safe and sound, rescue from danger or destruction, and deliver.” The Spirit Filled Life Bible says that this Greek word means “to save from physical death by healing, and from spiritual death by forgiving sin and its effects.” So there is a whole lot more that Jesus saved us from other than eternal death and punishment. He saved us from hell on earth too—which is any and every form of physical suffering or infirmity. Amen! So we are learning how we receive this salvation and wholeness because it’s obvious that it is not automatic. If it was, then we would all be made whole already. Yes, if it were just up to God’s will, every person would be healed & whole just like if it were totally up to God, every man & woman would be saved. But no, we understand that everybody is not saved and going to heaven, and why? Because the Bible is clear – everyone must believe! Yes, they must put faith in the finished work of grace. Then, and only then, can one become saved from their sin & it’s consequences. So if that is how it works with the most important part of salvation, that must be the same way it works with the rest of “sozo.” Yes, we are saved in our soul and body the same way we are saved spiritually. You see, it is crystal clear that we are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). Colossians 2:6 teaches us this: It says, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him.” So, how did you receive Him? By grace! So how are you supposed to walk in Him (speaking of our everyday conduct)? The obvious answer is by grace! God sanctified our spirit completely by grace when we received Him, and now He is wanting to sanctify our soul by grace while we are living in this body. Yes, church, we are saved by grace through faith – and this is how it works with all three parts of our whole person – spirit, soul, and body. And this is why we’ve seen such a common denominator between faith and salvation in all of these people who came to Jesus to receive physical healing. It’s because faith is the only way to receive being made whole. Can I get an Amen? THE NOBLEMAN’S SON So this week, I want us to look at another example of healing where faith certainly played a big factor. This is the story of the healing of the nobleman’s son found in John 4:46-53. Verse 46 begins with John telling us that “Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine …” Good news travels fast when it comes to miracles, doesn’t it? So, I’m sure that this nobleman had heard of Jesus’ first miracle that He performed in Cana, and when he heard that Jesus came again to their town, He made a bee line from Capernaum to come on behalf of his son. So an important lesson here is that this is where this certain nobleman got faith for his son because of what he had been hearing. So never underestimate the power of sharing the supernatural things God has done for you in your life. Not only will it increase faith in others, but it will increase your own faith as you recall the wonderful works of God. Amen! Then we are told – “And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.” Now the root word for the Greek word used for “nobleman” here is the word for “king.” It literally described a royal official. Therefore, this man had some clout, prestige, and notoriety. Some commentators even believe that he was one of Herod’s officers. So, this guy might have been likened to what we would recognize as a governor or senator who represents our state. This is actually a common example in the Gospels—where someone with some notoriety and a position would come to Jesus on behalf of someone they loved and humbled themselves to implore Him for that person. It was in the example here with the nobleman, and was also used in the healing of the Centurion’s servant and in the healing of Jairus’ daughter. Therefore, this shows us the humility in this man to come to Jesus and essentially beg Him to come heal his son. Again, we see how the Scriptures make a point to tell us about the ones who had to humble themselves in coming to Jesus. Why do you reckon this is so? It’s because a person’s faith is closely connected to their humility. You see, the Bible makes a point in telling us that the humble get more grace from God (See James 4:6). On the contrary, the proud get resisted by God. And don’t just think of pride as being the more vocal braggart or boastful person. That’s just one end of pride. The other, more hidden side of pride, is the quieter one – the person who cares too much about what other people think, who leans on their own abilities, etc. This is the same kind of pride that will keep one from receiving the grace of wholeness. We’ve got to get real, not caring what others think or the fallout. When we get to that place, we get more grace. Amen? So, I see two things as the catalyst for these prominent men’s miracles—their humility and their love. Their humility in coming to Jesus in spite of their power and position and their love for the one they came on behalf of. Just as our Lord was moved with compassion, our passion for the thing we desire plays a major role in the moving of ourselves into the position to receive. Now I want you to specifically notice that this man came from Capernaum to Cana of Galilee. Galilee was a region kind of like we might refer to as a state here in the United States. And just like our state of Georgia has various cities within it, Galilee had towns or cities within it as well— and two of those towns were Cana & Capernaum. The specific location of these two towns is an important point in this story because notice what this man did in verse 47 … Verse 47 tells us – “When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.” So Capernaum was a city located right alongside of the Sea of Galilee and was about 20-25 miles northeast of Cana. So, for this nobleman to “come up” from Capernaum was a serious step of faith because they obviously didn’t have the modes of transportation that we have today. This man was likely traveling on foot through some extreme temperatures & difficult terrain. Not only that, but notice how that this nobleman implored Jesus to “come down” and heal his son. Now we would usually use terminology like this if someone were coming from somewhere north of us such as Atlanta. But we just saw that where this nobleman came from was actually more north of Cana, right? So why did this man say for Jesus to come “down”? Well, bodies of water are generally at a much lower sea level, right? Also, near to Cana was a more mountainous region. So, when he said to come down, he was not referring to where they were geographically but to where they were at sea level. So what this does is it shows us that what this man did to come to Jesus was even more difficult because it was all significantly uphill for 20-25 miles. That’s a lot of effort, my friends. This nobleman went through a lot to come to Jesus in hopes of Him granting his request, much less him even being able to locate Jesus. I’m not so sure a lot of people who say they want to be made whole would do the things this man did. But this is the kind of stuff that true faith will do. Yes, it will climb a mountain. It will travel a long distance on foot. It will lose its dignity. This is what someone who believes that Jesus is the answer will do. Amen? Verse 48 goes on to say, “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.’” This was certainly not a commendation being given to this nobleman by Jesus. He was likely referring to how these people of Galilee who had heard of His miracle of turning the water into wine were looking for more miracles without yet believing on Him. This was actually a very common thing with God’s chosen people. Paul taught us that the Jews seek after a sign (See First Corinthians 1:22). In other words, the Jewish people had the tendency to need proof in order to believe. But, you see, while we certainly should desire things like the gifts of the Spirit and the supernatural signs and wonders of God, we should not depend on them in order to believe God and His Word. No, while the saying, “seeing is believing,” might be true to some, it is not truth to a believer. Seeing is not believing—for the Bible teaches us that we walk by faith and not by sight (See Second Corinthians 5:7). This statement by Jesus reminds me of the story of doubting Thomas and what Jesus said to him when He revealed Himself to Thomas: You see, Thomas wanted physical evidence, and was unwilling to simply believe the testimony of the other disciples. But when Jesus showed Himself to Thomas and the others, he turned to Thomas and said, “Do not be unbelieving; be believing” (See John 20:27) I see Jesus here correcting Thomas’ tendency to not believe. In other words, I don’t believe this was an isolated case of Thomas doubting. I see it as a heart issue here where Thomas’ tendency to question what he was hearing had become commonplace. And the reason I believe this is because of this thing Jesus told him – to not be faithless but to be believing. You see, a lot of times the problem is not that we don’t believe one specific thing, but that our tendency is to not believe most things. In other words, it’s the spirit behind the action that is the problem. So if our tendency is to “be unbelieving,” then doubt will be our bent. But if our tendency is to “be believing,” then we will be more apt to believe when it doesn’t make sense, or we don’t have any evidence. Again, it’s all about the heart, and we certainly want to possess a “believing” heart. But one thing that I just love about what Jesus said to Thomas here is that Jesus just simply said be one way and don’t be another. There was no – “I understand that you may have to work at it” or “Try your best even though it might be hard.” No, Jesus said stop being this way and start being that way. Church, faith is a choice, not a feeling. We can choose to “be believing.” So if we call ourselves believers, then let’s be believers! Amen! Verses 49-50 go on to say, “The nobleman said to Him, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go your way; your son lives.’ …” Now at this point, this man had a decision to make, didn’t he? Either he was going to believe what Jesus said and turn around and travel that same 20-25 miles back home believing His Word or he was going to stay there and continue to plead with Jesus to come with him because he wasn’t willing to believe His Word. I think most believers today would have failed this test. I believe that most would have persisted in trying to get Jesus to come down to Capernaum with us. But not this man! He did what the Lord Jesus told him to do, believing what He said! That’s the way I want to respond. Verse 50 goes on to say, “… So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.” So essentially, this man believed what Jesus said and then acted on it. Church, when are you and I going to believe that we are healed? When the doctor tells me I am healed? When the symptoms go away? When we feel like we are healed? No, we need to believe the word even if we never feel or see anything changed because this is what our faith God expects out of His people of faith. This is what Mark 11:23-24 teaches us—that faith believes it receives when it prays, not when it sees the answer manifested. We are not to base our faith on our feelings: I’ve come to find that there are three times that I see someone get healed. There’s the time where I don’t feel anything, but the person I’m praying for does, and they get healed. There’s also the time where I feel something, but the person I’m praying for doesn’t, and they get healed. But there is also the other time where I don’t feel anything and they don’t feel anything, but they get healed. Do you know what this teaches me? That we can’t base these things on our feelings! Sure, it’s nice when we have them to confirm something is happening, but they are not the proof that something is happening or has happened. Our faith alone is the evidence of things hoped for (See Hebrews 11:1). Notice that this nobleman not only believed the logos – the word that is used to describe the written word – but he believed the word that Jesus “spoke” to him, which is another way of describing a rhema word from God. So this shows us that yes, we need to believe the Bible, but we also need rhema’s too. Both work towards us having faith and where faith comes from. So, we are told that he went his way. This was maybe 10-20 miles of casting down of imaginations, 10-20 miles of resisting the fears, 10-20 miles of bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Have you ever walked the road before? Sometimes that road is a difficult one because doubts & fears pervade us. So just as this nobleman had an uphill climb to get to Jesus, his walk of faith back to Capernaum had the tendency to be a downhill slide. What do I mean by that? I mean it’s just natural for our flesh & heart to try and get drug down by unbelief and doubt. It’s a lot like gravity, because there will be plenty of natural, physical things that will try and bring us back down to earth. So I say this to say, don’t think somethings wrong with you because you are tempted to fear & doubt. That is not the case. It’s just the journey of faith while living in this natural, carnal world. You and I will have to fight the temptation to not believe & trust God as long as we live in this carnal world. Verse 51 goes on to say, “And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!” Can you imagine the jubilation of this man when he got this news! Well, this same news came to Jesus’ disciples after He was raised from the dead. Most of us have heard the story, where Jesus first revealed Himself first to the woman, Mary Magdeline, and then she goes to tell Jesus’ other disciples that He was alive. So pretty much the same good news came to Jesus’ disciples that came to this nobleman – “He lives!” Then in Matthew’s Gospel, we are told that Jesus appeared to three of the women. But when His disciples heard that He had been raised from the dead, they did not believe. In other words, they doubted the word that they heard. So what if I came to you and said, “You live!”? Or if I said, “Your brain cells live!” or “Your kidney lives!”? What will you believe? Verse 52 says, “Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” So why did the nobleman ask this question? It was obviously because he was interested in knowing if it was about the time that Jesus told him that his son lived. But I want you to notice something about the time when the fever left his son – It was at the seventh hour! Now what does the number seven mean in Biblical numerology? It means completion. It’s the day after God finished His work of creation. So, do you know what this teaches us? It’s that the work is finished, it is done and complete, not when we see it or feel it, but when He said it! On the seventh hour, it is done! Finally, in verse 53, we are told – “So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household.” Boy, Jesus’ words are powerful, are they not? Simply by speaking the word all the way in Cana, something was affected in Capernaum, showing us that there is no time or distance in the spirit. Therefore, we should not put any limitations on any of God’s Words. If we will just believe the Words He speaks to us, in that very same hour, we can receive the fruit of them. So I for one choose to take the things Jesus has said to me and believe them, knowing that the fruit of His Words come the moment He speaks them to me. Therefore, Words like “He has delivered me from the power of darkness and translated me into the kingdom of the dear Son of His love” (Colossians 1:13) are what I take as Jesus speaking to me. Words like “no weapon formed against me shall prosper” are truth to me. Yes, the same way I believe that my sins are taken care of because it is written they are, I believe the rest of Isaiah 53 that says, “He Himself bore my sicknesses and carried my pains.” In other words, it’s as good as done in my book because it is written in His Book. Amen! Now I love feelings, but they are not my diet. They are desserts and they are nice when we get them, but what we need is the Word that He speaks to us. Let’s be believers, believing that we have been made whole by the Words He has spoken to us. Yes, let’s be “noblemen” and “noblewomen” and honor God’s Word above all else, believing that just one word spoken by Him can make us whole. Amen! REVIEW
So we have been learning for some time how we can be made whole – understanding first that God indeed wants us healed. But He doesn’t just want us healed and made whole partially; He wants us healed & whole completely and wholly. We’ve learned this from our golden text for this series – First Thessalonians 5:23 – where the Holy Spirit says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” You see, so many Christians like to “spiritualize” God’s promises of healing & wholeness by saying, “Well, I know the Bible says that by Jesus’ stripes we are healed, but don’t you know that’s just talking about spiritual healing?” And so what this group of Christians does is they only apply ALL of these verses about healing to our spiritual condition that certainly has need of being made whole too. Yes, they will talk about how Isaiah 53’s prophecies of Jesus bearing our sicknesses and carrying our pains was referring our salvation from sin. But I think it is interesting how in the 8th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that we are told how Jesus healed all their sick and cast out demons and then it says, “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah, saying, ‘He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.’” (See Matthew 8:16-17). So if Isaiah’s prophecies were only talking about our spiritual condition being healed, why would the Gospels refer to Jesus’ healing people’s physical & soulish conditions as being the fulfillment of his prophecy? No, our verse in First Thessalonians makes it clear that God’s desire to sanctify, preserve, heal, and make whole is not just reserved for our spirit. No, it’s for our complete and whole man, which includes our soul and body. Amen? Church, God does not just want us made whole partially; He wants us whole wholly! So what we are learning is how this happens, for it’s obvious that it is not automatic. If it was, then we would all be made whole already. Yes, if it were just up to God’s will, every person would be healed & whole. So what we have been doing is looking at several examples of people who were healed and made whole in the Gospels and learning from those real-life stories what those individuals did to receive their wholeness. We’ve looked at examples like the healing of the man by the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus’ cleansing of the ten lepers, the healing of Blind Bart, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, the woman who had a spirit of infirmity, and last week, how Jesus raised up Jairus’ daughter from the dead. THE BLIND MAN OF BETHSAIDA This week, I want us to look at another example from the Gospels – the story of the blind man of Bethsaida. Now have you ever heard the phrase “Get out of town” used? Of course, you have. It is a phrase used to express disbelief at a comment or statement like someone would say, “No way, I can’t believe that, or are you serious?” Well, that’s an interesting parallel because that is exactly what I want us to tackle today— this example of the blind man of Bethsaida in the Gospels is where the Holy Spirit was teaching us how certain places and groups of people (even towns) can have atmospheres of unbelief and then what to do about it. In fact, getting out of town is one of the big points. So let’s turn over to Mark chapter 8 and look at this story … Verse 22 begins with – “Then He came to Bethsaida …” Now there is a little debate on where this city was actually located, but most have Bethsaida located in the region of Galilee, at the northern tip of the Sea of Galilee. The word “Bethsaida” literally means “House of Fishing” (The Hebrew word “beth” used for a “house” and the word used for fishing is obviously a reference to their coastal location). Now I’ll get ahead of myself here, but a good question in this story is – Why did Jesus lead this man out of the town? Well, consider the name of the town! Bethsaida was one of the cities that Jesus “woe’d” for rejecting Him in Matthew 11:21 & Luke 10:8-16. So, do you reckon that Jesus took him out of the town because of the unbelief in the town? Absolutely! You see, apparently even the dust of those towns can have unbelief on it. That might be why Jesus said to even wipe the dust off of their feet. Oftentimes people need to be led out of certain environments and situations in order to receive all that God has for them. And this certainly includes certain relationships … You see, far too many of us have befriended “Beth Saida” – that is, we have associations in our life that are actually hindering us from receiving everything that God has for us. We need to understand that as First Corinthians 15:33 tells us – “Do not be deceived: ‘Evil company corrupts good habits’.” We can sit there and believe all day that their bad beliefs and behaviors are not affecting us, but the Bible tells us not to be deceived about this exact thing — that surrounding ourselves with evil company will corrupt our good habits. And this also applies to faith versus unbelief. If we encompass ourselves with unbelief, then it will corrupt our faith. Therefore, unless you know that you know that God has put so and so in your life to minister to them for a period of time, quit your friendship with “Beth,” church; she will only drag your faith down! Then verse 22 goes on to say, “and they brought a blind man to Him, and begged Him to touch him.” Church, this is another reason it is important to have friends and faith buddies—those who will help take you where you need to be to get your healing when you are not able to get there yourself. I think it is safe to assume that this blind man was somewhat likeable, as evidenced by the fact that this group of people brought him to Jesus and begged Him to touch him. What if he would have been embittered and mad at the world because of his condition? What if he would have been so self-absorbed about his condition that you couldn’t carry on a conversation with him without him going on and on about his disadvantages in life, etc. etc. etc. Well, I suppose that this would have caused him to run off a lot of these friends who brought him to Jesus. Then where would this guy have been? Not in the Gospel of Mark, I can assure you. But notice how they brought him and begged Jesus to touch him … So, here we see the faith involved in this miracle. They obviously believed that if they could get this blind man to Jesus and if Jesus would touch him, he would be healed. But notice how Jesus responded to their pleading … Verse 23 says, “So He took the blind man by the hand and led him out of the town.” So Jesus touched him by taking him by the hand, but that didn’t get the guy healed. We are about to see that Jesus ministered healing to him differently than these people had it in their hearts. This shows us as ministers of healing that we do not need to only minister like the people expect us to. We need to be led by the Holy Spirit in how we minister because while they believed that Jesus just needed to lay hands on him for him to be healed, Jesus knew something they didn’t—and that was that He had to get him out of the town in order to effectively minister to him. Verse 23 goes on to say, “And when He had spit on his eyes …” Now this is something we saw Jesus do from time to time—using His spit to heal people. We see this here and also in the healing of the deaf and dumb man (Mark 7:33). We also saw Him doing this in the healing of the man born blind (John 9:6). So what was it about Jesus’ spit that healed people? Well, first of all, it’s important to understand that spitting is regarded as an insult. People spit on others to show their contempt and disdain for them. So do you reckon Jesus hates infirmity? He spits in the face of sickness, disease, and infirmity like the Roman soldiers spat on Him. Also, if you compare the Scriptures in the Law regarding “spit” you will find some interesting things … First, in Leviticus chapter 15, when addressing bodily discharges, the Lord said, “If he who has a discharge spits on him who is clean, then he shall wash his clothes and bathe in water, and be unclean until evening” (vs.8). So what we see here is that when someone who has a particular uncleanness spits on someone else, they are also considered unclean for a certain period of time. So do you reckon it might work the other way around – that if someone is absolutely clean (like Jesus) were to spit on them, that they could be considered clean too? Yes, and amen! Then in Numbers 12:14, regarding Moses’ intercession for his sister Miriam who was struck with leprosy, the Lord said, “If her father had but spit in her face, would she not be shamed for seven days? Let her be shut out of the camp seven days, and afterward she may be received.” What the Lord was saying in response of Moses’ plea for mercy for her was that she must follow the prescribed seven days outside of the camp for those inspected and found to have leprosy—because simply being spit on by her father would have required a similar duration of shame. So the effects of being spit on in their days was that of shame and required a certain duration of being ostracized. Therefore, if Jesus spit on the curse, wouldn’t it also be ostracized from the person as well? Amen! We also see something similar in Deuteronomy 25:9 when it comes to the duties of a surviving brother and his widowed sister-in-law. If he did not fulfill his duty in marrying her, then she was able to spit in his face in the presence of the elders—putting him to an open shame and condemning him before the people. Likewise, Jesus spits in the face of sickness & disease, making a public spectacle of it openly, triumphing over it through the Cross (Colossians 2:15). So what we are seeing here is that under the Law, spitting on someone was considered a negative thing—an insult, an action of contempt, a cursing if you would. So when Jesus would use His spit to touch their infirmity, what He was doing was essentially cursing their curse: He was showing disdain and contempt for it! He was telling it that it must go from that person—that it was considered unclean and must leave their tent. Amen! But Jesus didn’t just spit on this man’s infirmity; Verse 23 also says, “… and put His hands on him.” So Jesus wound up meeting these guys where they were by ministering to him where their faith was (i.e. “and begged Him to touch him”- See verse 22). Plus, He ministered to him how the Holy Spirit led Him (i.e. “spit on his eyes”). This is a very good model for ministry: Meet the people where their faith is and honor their requests, but also listen to the Holy Spirit and minister according to how He leads you. So after Jesus then asked him if he saw anything, verse 24 tells us that the man “looked up” (Greek anablepo). This man was not looking up, like into the heavens. His head was evidently down. Jesus had to make him “look up.” We know this because when he told Jesus what he saw after looking “up” was men like trees walking. So if you had to look up to see that, then your head was obviously down. This is very important to understand because this inferiority complex and insecurity will keep one from entering into their God-given inheritance. We need to be a people whose heads are lifted up and who walk around confidently with our shoulders back — confident in who we are in Christ. We need to become far sighted Christians – just like this man came to the place where he saw men like trees walking (who were the men that looked like trees? The unbelieving city folk. Make unbelief blurry), you have to make certain things blurry and focus in on the place you want to go. It’s called being far-sighted where we are focused on things in the distance and cannot see the resistance right in front of us! (Compare Second Peter 1:9) Verse 24 goes on to tell us what this blind man responded with – “I see men like trees, walking.” So I envision that he was seeing the people around him walking around but his semi-restored vision was seeing them stretched out to be tall like trees. This reveals to us that this man was not always blind because how would he know what men or trees looked like to compare what he was seeing to? Plus, verse 25 tells us that his sight was “restored.” You can only restore something that you had at one point. Verse 25 then tell us – “Then He put His hands on his eyes again …” This shows us that there are times where we need to pray again for certain things. The key is being led by the Spirit. But persistence is the key. Some people will pray once for someone or for themselves and if they do not get healed within a certain frame of time, they will quit. We need to keep hitting disease with the hammer of the Holy Spirit and not grow faint. Sure, sometimes faith will pray once, believe and receive. But there are other times where you keep hitting that thing until it breaks. Again, the key is in being led by Him in every situation. But did you know that this was the only instance we have recorded where Jesus had to pray for someone more than once and do you think it was a coincidence that this man came out of a town full of unbelief. Unbelief must be shaved off in layers. Yes, He got the man out of the town, but He obviously hadn’t gotten the town completely out of the man. Notice that Jesus did not say, “Well, it’s better than what you had.” No, Jesus prayed again because it was God’s will for his sight to be FULLY restored. Again, we need to keep tackling the sickness & disease, not settling for “good enough.” Let’s press in until we get “more than enough.” So after Jesus made him look up again, the man’s sight was completely restored, seeing everyone clearly. But I want you to notice what Jesus then said to him in verse 26 – “Neither go into the town, not tell anyone in the town.” So, again, the first thing Jesus did was He took the man by the hand and “led him out of the town” (vs.23). Now we see here that He told the man to not even go back into “the town” nor tell anyone in “the town.” There sure are a lot of references to “the town” here in these five short verses, aren’t there? This clearly shows us that the “town” was the problem here! Notice that Jesus not only told this man to not tell anyone in the town what had happened to him, but Jesus told this guy not to even go back in the town itself. Now one of the obvious reasons Jesus would tell certain people not to go tell the world about their healing or miracle was because the unbelieving are proficient in spilling their unbelief over on someone who has received a touch from the Lord. In other words, they will say things like – “Well, that’s just mind over matter. Don’t think that was a divine intervention. It’s just a coincidence.” If we give an audience to that spirit of unbelief, it can certainly talk us out of our healing. But evidently there is a detrimental effect of even being in the atmosphere of unbelief. That’s why Jesus told the man not even to go back into the town. Church, the “town” we live in – whether that be a specific geographic location or simply certain relationships we have – can drastically affect things. We see this even in Jesus’ hometown: In Mark 6:1-6, we read – “Then He went out from there and came to His own country, and His disciples followed Him. And when the Sabbath had come, He began to teach in the synagogue. And many hearing Him were astonished, saying, ‘Where did this Man get these things? And what wisdom is this which is given to Him, that such mighty works are performed by His hands! Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary, and brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon? And are not His sisters here with us?’ So they were offended at Him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house.’ Now He could do no mighty work there, except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He marveled because of their unbelief. Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching.” This is why it is important to reverse the process… You see, if an atmosphere of unbelief can prevent the mighty works of God from being performed, then wouldn’t an atmosphere of faith promote the mighty works of God being performed? Absolutely! Therefore, it is imperative that we surround ourselves with faith filled friends, faith filled groups, etc. Yes, it is vital for us to create an atmosphere that is conducive for the miracles we desire. And according to this example of Jesus’ hometown, it all begins with honor. You see, because of their familiarity with Jesus and His family, they had a difficult time receiving from Him – which is a big problem because the old saying is true, familiarity does indeed bring contempt. And this creates offense, a stumbling. So what did Jesus do – Mark 6:6 says that He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching. The language here indicates that Jesus went into the villages all around Bethsaida, but didn’t go back there. Why? Because Jesus lived by His own words of not giving what is holy to the dogs or casting His pearls before swine. If people were bent on rejecting Him, not giving Him the honor or respect, He would go somewhere else. Lord, don’t let that be us! Let us be a people who honor You to the full degree that we can, so that we can see more mighty works in our midst. So, my point today is clear—we need to “get out of town” and “get the town” out of us. Be careful what we are watching and what we are listening to. It comes through prayer and fasting—drawing near to God and moving away from Bethsaida. REVIEW
What a blessing it is to know that our God wants us whole! No, He doesn’t just want us partially healed or somewhat well; He wants our whole man completely whole – which includes our entire spirit, soul, and body. We’ve learned this from our golden text for this series – First Thessalonians 5:23 – where the apostle Paul says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” But I want you to notice a little, relatively obscure word that’s mentioned twice in this verse – the word “may.” Again Paul said, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely” and “may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless.” The word “may” expresses both possibility and permission: It means that it can happen; but there’s no guarantee of it happening. And one of the obvious things that makes it possible is someone giving it permission to happen. Now most Christians would obviously think the one giving permission for this to occur in our lives is God. Yes, most believers think that one will be made whole if God allows it, He wills it, etc. But I don’t think that’s the case here. I believe the one that ultimately makes this possible in our lives is US. Sure, God has to be the initiator. Yes, God has to make it a possibility and invite us to enter into it. But the truth is – He’s done that! By penning these words from First Thessalonians 5:23 in our Bible, God has made it perfectly clear that He wants this for all of us! Therefore, you and I are now the ones who “may” let it happen. Might I say that we are the ones who “make room” for it to happen, a point that we will make in today’s message. So how do we do this? Well, we do the same things that we see in these examples of Scripture where individuals are made whole by the Lord. Yes, we follow their faith and invite the Lord to do the same healing work in our lives that He did in theirs. Amen? So we’ve looked at several examples so far, such as the healing of the man by the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus’ cleansing of the ten lepers, the healing of Blind Bart, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, the healing of the woman with the issue of blood, and most recently, the woman who had a spirit of infirmity. So I’d encourage you that if you have missed any of these teachings to go back and listen to / watch them, as they contained vital, Scriptural keys to being made whole. So now, let’s move into another example in the Gospels of someone who was made whole by the Master, and see what we can take away from this story … JARIUS & HIS DAUGHTER – CHAPTER ONE Now if you recall, we covered the story of the woman with the issue of blood a few weeks back, which as we made the point of, was an interruption to another story. Well, today, I’d like to talk about that other story – the story of Jairus and his daughter, the story of a father’s great love for his daughter. Now this story is included in three of the four Gospels, so it’s important to read all three accounts in order to get the full picture of what transpired on that day. Today, however, we are mainly going to look at Mark chapter 5 … We see in verse 21 that when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, that a great multitude gathered to Him by the sea. That is when verse 22 says, “And behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name …” Now by throwing in the phrase “by name,” Mark was indicating that Jairus was well known. And why? Because he was one of the rulers of the synagogue there. So this man had clout. The Jews in that region knew him. If the name Jairus was mentioned there, everyone would know – “Oh yeah, that’s one of the rulers of the synagogue.” But I want you to notice that he did not come to Jesus giving Him all his credentials and all the reasons why Jesus should come and help his daughter. No, verses 22-23 tell us that “he fell at His feet and begged Him earnestly.” You see, this is so significant because of who this man was: Even though he was a man of status, he still begged him, even falling at His feet. Now begging is not believing and begging does not get you healed. But humility does! The humble get more grace according to James. You show me a person who is in faith; I’ll show you someone who is truly humble. This is why they get more grace! On top of that, this also shows us the heart of the ones who receive. It is those who get serious! It is those who are willing to mess their hair up! It is those who get ugly for Jesus! Amen! You see, some people just can’t do this. They simply cannot bring themselves to the place of laying aside their pride & dignity. And I’ll tell you, saints, that keeps more people from their miracle than most people realize. And no, it’s not simply the physical actions that get the results; it’s the heart behind the actions. So when someone’s heart is impacted by the awareness that Jesus is ALL that matters, and that person gets to the point where they realize in their heart that how they look, what people will think, etc. means nothing, this is when these humble actions get results. So again, don’t think that if I just do what someone else did, I’ll get what they got. God looks at the heart, and the heart is where one believes. Now notice what Jairus said from his position of humility because there is a lot to learn from this … In verse 23, he said, “My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay Your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live.” Notice that here in Mark’s account, he calls her his “little daughter” In Luke 8:42, he calls her his only daughter. So all of this points to how extra special she was to her daddy. She was obviously very young, and she was his one & only. Now where do you suppose Jairus got this great love for his daughter? It’s not the devil, I can tell you that. No, this inherent nature in parents to love their children and do anything for them like Jarius did here is a God-instilled trait. Yes, we get our nature to love our children from God’s nature to love His. You know, it’s always been amazing to me how a person who has either fathered or mothered children and experienced that special love for their kids, struggles with grasping how our Heavenly Father could love them like that. But the fact that Jairus was willing to do everything in his power to get the Healer to come touch his daughter shows us that our Heavenly Father will do the same. In fact, He already has done it by sending His “only son” to make us whole. So know on this Father’s Day that you have a good, good Heavenly Father who desires to give good gifts to His children – and one of those good gifts is the children’s bread of healing & wholeness. Amen? Now Jairus obviously knew that his daughter was lying at the point of death by her condition. So the situation was extremely serious and time was of the essence. So we see that his first request was for Jesus to “Come …” Come and what? “Come and lay Your hands on her …” A good question here is – Why would Jairus specifically request that Jesus come to his home and lay His hands on her? Well, I think the answer is obvious. Faith comes by hearing, right? (See Romans 10:17). So evidently, Jairus had heard something in regard to Jesus laying His hands on people and then being healed. So what he was really saying to Jesus was this: “Come do that hand thing that I’ve heard you do” You see, what you hear is important. And the more you hear of what Jesus has done, is doing, and will do for people, the more faith you will have in Him doing it for you! Amen? So never underestimate what you are exposing yourself to. Whatever you allow to be sown in your heart is what you will develop faith in. It works both positively and negatively. And it is rather obvious how what Jairus was hearing about Jesus had impacted his heart – because notice what he said, “… that she may be healed, and she will live.” Apparently, this man had become so persuaded by what he was hearing about Jesus that he “just knew” that if Jesus would come lay His hands on his daughter that she would live. Boy, this really teaches us about a strong characteristic of faith – Faith will tell you what WILL happen before it happens. Again, it doesn’t just simply say words hoping that it’s the magic formula to getting what we desire. No, true faith says these things because it’s confident that something will or will not happen. Then in verse 24, we see Jesus’ response to this man’s faith. Mark says that Jesus went with Him, but I like how Matthew puts it – It says, “So Jesus arose and followed him” (See Matthew 9:19). You know, we always think of us following Jesus, but in this case, Jesus followed Jairus! The Lord will follow our faith! When faith leads the way, the Healer will show up on the scene! JARIUS & HIS DAUGHTER – CHAPTER TWO So it was at this point that the woman with the issue of blood interrupted our story and took her miracle. So when Jesus was speaking to this woman, telling her how her faith had made her well, this is when we revisit Jairus’ situation. We will call this half of Jairus’ story, “chapter two” … Verse 35 says, “While He was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue’s house who said, ‘Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?’” Now can you imagine the temptation Jarius might have experienced here? I mean, hearing that your young and only daughter is now dead will bring all kinds of terrible emotions, I’m sure. Then he could have also had all kinds of bitter emotions come up toward this woman or even towards Jesus. He could have thought things like — “Jesus, why did You stop? Didn’t you know that time was of the essence?” or “Why did this lady get Jesus to stop? My situation was important!” Then comes the unbelief: Again, Mark 5:35 shows us how those from Jairus’ house said, “Why trouble the Teacher any further?” In other words, “You might as well quit now, Jairus. It’s all over now.” Well, the obvious answer to their question is – the reason you “trouble the Teacher any further” is because He is not just “the Teacher” or even just “the Healer” for that matter; He is the Resurrection and the Life! Amen! Church, don’t ever stop believing “further!” Even if the manifestation doesn’t come when you want it or how you expected it … Even if things seem too far gone or lost … Even if your situation seems impossible … Always, “Faith further!” So when all of these things rise up in you like the impatience of why is it taking so long, the offense of why are these delays happening, or the unbelief that tempts you to let go of what you are believing for, know this – This is when it is important to hear from the Lord – because the devil loves to capitalize on opportunities like this to sow flesh, offense, or unbelief into our hearts, which will take us even further away from our wholeness. Amen? Verse 36 tells us – “As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, He said …” Oftentimes, when there is a bad report or word spoken that would tempt us to be discouraged or quit, the Lord will come back with a “rhema” word that encourages you to stand. This is why when we get the bad report, it is imperative that we get in the Word of God and commune with the Spirit of God. So what was the Word that Jairus received? Jesus said, “Do not be afraid; only believe.” The language literally says, “Stop fearing, Be Believing!” And the Message Bible translates it like so – “Don’t listen to them; just trust me.” This is significant because what we must establish our heart in is even when we get a bad report like this, not to listen or take heed to them. I will trust the Lord! So why would Jesus have told him to not be afraid unless fear would have had a negative impact on the desired miracle? Why would Jesus have said, “Do not be afraid” when the news was that she was dead? What did He mean by “only believe”? Well, evidently, you can believe and do something else. Do you remember the story of the demon possessed boy when the father said, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief.” You can evidently have faith and unbelief at the same time. One of the greatest hindrances to seeing healings and miracles is not just a lack of faith but the presence of unbelief that will counterbalance the faith’s production. And I love one thing that Luke’s Gospel adds on to what Jesus said here. Jesus said in Luke 8:50 – “she will be made well.” In other words, if you don’t fear and only believe, she is gonna live, buddy! Now compare this statement to how Jairus said that she will live: Jesus basically said here what Jairus originally said. You see, the Great High Priest of our confession will help us to hold fast to our profession without wavering. This falls in line with the saying that “if you say what God said, He will do what you say.” Then Mark 5:37 tells us – “And He permitted no one to follow Him except Peter, James and John …” A good question here is, why? Why would Jesus not permit anyone other than these three to follow Him to Jairus’ house? I think this shows us how Jesus was very specific about who He “let in” when it came to the more notable miracles. The reason is because some people can actually hurt the atmosphere and make it less conducive for a miracle. It doesn’t mean that they are evil people or that they don’t have other good qualities, but when it comes to some healings, we only need people who know how to believe God at our side. So be careful who you travel with. As the Bible says, evil communication corrupts good manners. Now we always apply that to not hanging around sinful people, but it goes with unbelief too. Find you some good faith buddies who will follow you into your wholeness! But this wasn’t all Jesus did to prepare the environment: When they came to Jairus’ home, they found a lot of commotion going on, people weeping & wailing. So Jesus enters the house asking why all the commotion, for the girl is not dead but she’s only sleeping. Now this is not the first time Jesus said something like this. We see something similar in the resurrection of Lazarus (John 11:11). So I believe Jesus was practicing speaking life and not death. He did not want to say that his friend Lazarus was dead, but in this case, His disciples forced Him to be blunt. Then verse 40 tells us that when Jesus told the crowd that the girl was not dead but only sleeping – “… they ridiculed Him …” Why do you suppose they did this? I believe it was because they were thinking Jesus was being ignorant & insensitive – ignorant in that they thought He didn’t understand the facts and insensitive in that they didn’t think this was doing right by the family to make statements like that when they just lost their daughter. So I believe a good lesson here is that we need to be prepared that when you start calling things that be not as though they were, you will be ridiculed by the unbelievers around you. So how did Jesus respond to all of this unbelief? He put them outside! Church, sometimes you just have to kick all the doubt and unbelief out! The more serious it gets, the less tolerant and sensitive you need to be of people’s feelings and the more selective you need to be of who you invite in and talk to. Yes, there is a time to kick out Aunt Afraid & Uncle Unbelief. Now in Matthew’s Gospel, we see where, in cleaning out the house, Jesus said, “Make room” (Matthew 9:24). I like to look at this phrase as a strong admonition for us. You see, we need to make room for Jesus in our “house” by removing all the unbelief out of our hearts. This is what the apostle Paul prayed in Ephesians chapter 3 when he prayed that they would let Christ dwell in their hearts through faith (Ephesians 3:17). You see, Jesus isn’t able to make Himself at home in most Christians because they have too much unbelief crowding their hearts. This is when simply opening up the door to our hearts and letting Jesus enter in becomes important – because He can “make room” better than you and I can. Yes, He can clean out our temple and make us whole! But back to Mark’s Gospel … Mark 5:40 shows us then how “He took the father and the mother of the child …” So why would Jesus take the girl’s parents in and kick everyone else out? It’s because the parents are the ones with the delegated authority over their children. Jairus and his wife needed to be there standing together with Jesus to see this miracle take place because of the girl’s age. So how did Jesus then minister to this little girl? The first thing we saw was that He took her by the hand. Now this was what Jairus requested in the beginning, right? He wanted Jesus to come lay His hands on her, right? So we see Jesus honoring Jairus’ faith here. But one thing that is very interesting here is that the word “took” comes from the Greek word kratos which describes an authoritative, powerful grabbing of something. This reminds me of the blind man at the gate called beautiful where Peter “took” him by the hand too! This denotes confidence and one understanding his or her authority! But Jesus didn’t just do something; He also said something … He said, “Talitha, cumi” which when translated said, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” This is a good example of how you minister healing… He addressed the lifeless body of the girl (the mountain, in this case) then he made the simple command for her to “arise.” And guess what happened? Verses 42 says, “Immediately the girl arose and walked for she was twelve years of age. And they were overcome with great amazement.” Praise the Lord! Finally, verse 43 shows us one last thing that is very important: It says, “But He commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and said that something should be given her to eat.” What this teaches me is that healing is not just a spiritual thing. In other words, receiving our healing & wholeness doesn’t only have to do with the spiritual side of things like believing God, etc. No, there is a natural side to healing as well. And evidently, this little girl’s nourishment was a vital part to her continuing to get better after being raised from the dead. I’ll tell you, saints, while we certainly need to apply the spiritual principles of healing to our lives, we need to also hear from the Holy Spirit and be led by the wisdom of God as it pertains to the natural side of things. You see, sometimes our issues can be totally related to some dietary change, an exercise adjustment, or simply taking a nap from time to time. The possibilities are endless. But this I know – the Holy Spirit is willing to show us if there is in fact an adjustment we need to make in the natural that will lead us to being made whole. Like I said, it might be cutting out sugar, it could be simply drinking more water, or it might even be adding a regular walk to our schedule. Again, it’s just important to inquire of the Lord regarding these things and being led by Him in both the spiritual and natural side of things. So in conclusion, we see how a father’s faith yielded a tremendous miracle on this day. No, it was not a Jesus instigated miracle; this man did what was necessary to make his home a place conducive for a notable miracle. And you and I can do the same too! Yes, we can make room in our house for the Healer, the Miracle Worker, to do His thing! Let’s do it! REVIEW
God wants you whole! No, He doesn’t just want you partially healed, only being concerned with the spiritual things. He wants your whole man completely whole – which includes your spirit, soul, and body. And in our current series entitled “How To Be Made Whole,” we have been learning how the Scriptures teach you and I to receive God’s will to make us whole. Yes, the Lord is so good to give us example after example in the Bible of those who did indeed line themselves up with God’s will and obtained their healing & wholeness. So we’ve looked at several examples so far, such as the healing of the man by the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus’ cleansing of the ten lepers, the healing of Blind Bartimaeus, the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law, and most recently, the healing of the woman with the issue of blood. I’d encourage you that if you have missed any of these teachings to go back and listen to / watch them, as they contained vital, Scriptural keys to being made whole. So let’s again go back over to our golden text for this series – First Thessalonians 5:23. Again, this verse reads – “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice how our God of peace is resolved to “sanctify” us completely: What does that mean? What does it mean to be “sanctified”? Well, this means to set apart or make holy. Therefore, God wants us to be completely set apart and made holy. You see, when Solomon dedicated the Temple in Second Chronicles chapter 7, the Lord appeared to him, telling him that He had chosen and “sanctified” the temple, that His name would be there forever and that His eyes & heart would be there perpetually (Second Chronicles 7:16). And the good news is, the New Testament reveals to us that we are the temples of God today. Yes, our bodies are the Temples of the Holy Spirit (See First Corinthians 6:19). So what does that mean? It means that you have been chosen and sanctified like the original Temple was! Yes, God’s name is on us forever, and that His eyes & heart are unto us perpetually! Glory! You see, just as the Temple of God had the outer courts, the inner courts, and the Holy of holies, you likewise are made up of the same --- You have an “outer courts,” which is your outward man. This is your body – the part of you that houses the House of God. So God wants your outward man sanctified, set apart, and holy unto God! You also have an “inner court,” which is your soul, the part of you that makes you “you.” It’s where your mind is. It’s where your emotions are. It’s where your personality is. And God wants that part of you sanctified, set apart, and holy unto God as well! Finally, you also have a Holy of holies contained within those inner courts. This is the place where God dwells. This is where His presence is contained. It’s where His holiness, righteousness, etc. are at. Of course, I’m talking about our born again, recreated spirit. So this part of us is likewise sanctified, set apart, and the holiest of all! So it ought to be readily embraced that the Lord wants our outer courts, our inner courts, and our holy of holies completely sanctified – that is, our spirit, soul, and body set apart and holy unto the Lord! This is what the apostle Paul was speaking of in First Thessalonians 5:23! Amen! So now, let’s move into another example in the Gospels of someone who was made whole by the Master, and see what we can take away from this story … THE WOMAN WITH THE SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY This next example I want us to look at is with the woman who had a spirit of infirmity. This story is told in Luke 13:10-17, and our story begins with the following phrase – “Now He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath.” Somebody say, “Uh oh!” How many of you know that Jesus sure got in a lot of trouble both ministering in the synagogues and doing things on the Sabbath! But while religion tries to bind us up and keep us in bondage, Jesus likes to barge into these synagogues on the Sabbath and show what is true, righteous, and God’s will. Amen! And notice what Jesus was doing here? He was “teaching!” You know, according to the Gospels, Jesus did a lot more teaching than He did preaching and healing. Therefore, the teaching of God’s Word is evidently super important – for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). So one thing that is important to take away from this is how Jesus constantly went to the synagogues to teach (i.e. “one of the Synagogues”)—even when He had all of these negative experiences, even when they were only trying to find fault in Him, even when He was highly unlikely to get through to any of them. Yes, He kept going in to them – showing us how the Lord does not react to rejection, unbelief, and religion like we would. He still reaches out. He still gives opportunities to hear Him. He keeps coming. (Say, “He keeps coming!”) The Lord is far more gracious and merciful than we can imagine! (Story of Trinity in Madurai) Then in verse 11, we are told – “And behold …” Today, some of us who are young and hip might say, “And check this out!” Then we see how there was a woman in this synagogue who had “a spirit of infirmity.” This is not an uncommon thing in the ministry of Jesus, for Him to identify a seemingly physical problem as a spirit. For example, He referred to a “dumb and deaf spirit” (Mark 9:25) and a “blind spirit” (Matt. 12:22). So, one thing worthy of noting here is that we see, in some of the physical healings that Jesus performed, the person’s physical affliction was a result of the person being “demonized.” We also see this in the healing of the mute man in Matthew chapter 9. In fact, we see in the ministry of Jesus that He dealt with demonic issues a lot—and, like in this instance, sometimes those demonic issues were the source of the physical infirmities. I bring this to our attention because if this is what we see a lot of in the four Gospels, then we can conclude that a lot of what we see afflicting people today is also likely demonic in nature. I believe that this is one of the reasons that we do not see the results in praying for the physically sick and mentally ill like we should: it is because we judge everything according to our own understanding and experiences. In other words, we put everything in our own little box—thinking that every time someone is diagnosed with some kind of illness that they need to be physically healed or thinking that every time someone has emotional issues that they need to be emotionally healed. This is not always the case when you look in the Word of God. The fact is, sometimes these things are demonic in nature, so we need to be spiritually in tune enough to be able to sense what the root of the infirmity is. This is an important part in order to get the results we desire. But here, Jesus knew that this woman had a spirit of infirmity, not just a physical problem, and He loosed her from that spirit. Amen. So we need to understand that this can certainly be a factor with us as well, when it comes to being made whole: Sometimes we are trying to medicate a spiritual problem. Sometimes we are trying to manage a mental or emotional condition when it goes deeper than simply the physical. Church, this is when we need the Holy Spirit’s help of discerning the spirits that afflict us and others so we can target that spiritual issue rather than just putting a band aid on an amputated arm (so to speak). On the flipside of this, we don’t need to go into the other ditch of looking for the devil and demons in every negative situation either. Sometimes people do this in themselves, thinking that every impure thought and feeling is “the devil.” Friends, you cannot crucify demons and you cannot cast out the flesh; you must crucify the flesh and cast out demons. Likewise, I believe sometimes we are trying to heal the demonic problem when we should be casting it out. Then we are told in verse 11 that this woman had this spirit of infirmity for “eighteen years.” How many of you know that this is far too long for one in covenant with God to be bound by Satan? But the fact is, she was bound by the devil for these eighteen years and should not have been—for they had a covenant with God where He promised to be their “rapha!” Therefore, it is possible for one to be bound by some infirmity – whether spiritually influenced or simply physical – for a long period of time and that does not make it nor prove it to be God’s will. Nor does it prove that it is just who we are either … You see, there are a lot of people who, because they have been a certain way or had a certain condition for so long, accept it as just being who they are or just the way it is. But based on this example from the Scriptures, we can clearly see that just because it’s been there for so long doesn’t make it right. Some people even like to say that if someone stays sick that God must have some redemptive purpose in it. Not necessarily. That wasn’t so with this woman, was it? So no, just because something has been a certain way for multiple decades doesn’t prove that it ought to be that way. And so, what this woman’s infirmity resulted in was the following – “and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up.” Now in this verse, Dr. Luke gives us details of what this woman’s specific infirmity was. This condition might be what we would call today “scoliosis” or “curvature of the spine.” However, as we’ve already seen, this condition is called a spirit of infirmity, and we see in verse 12 how Jesus told her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” So, the fact that she was bent over and could in no way raise herself up is specifically because of a “weakness” that she had (Lit. an infirmity). So, it stands to reason that this had some kind of evil spirit that kept her weak—a spirit of weakness, if you would. Then in verse 12, we read – “But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him …” Here is a glorious example of the heart of ministry. This Scripture does not say, “And the Holy Ghost led Him to minister to her.” No, the Scriptures just tell us that when Jesus saw her, He began the process of ministering to her. To me, this illustrates how our only trigger to begin ministering to people is simply seeing them. Amen? Now, of course, this does not mean that we don’t include the Holy Spirit, but it simply means that we need to have the foundation set in our heart that the Holy Spirit always wants to minister to people. So, yes, we need to be Spirit-led, but if we are consistently being led not to minister to people who need it then we are not being led by the Spirit. Then notice what Jesus said to her in verse 12 – “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” Now notice that Jesus did not say here – “Woman, get ready, because I am about to loose you from your infirmity!” No, the language here says that He told her that she was, at that moment, loosed from her infirmity. Now, it sure didn’t look like it yet, did it? Nope, because when he said this, she was still bowed over and couldn’t raise herself up. So what was Jesus doing here – He was doing the same thing we see Him doing a number of times, Jesus was calling those things that be not as though they were. But I want you to understand that He wasn’t just doing this as some magic formula that by saying something it makes it magically appear. No, Jesus only did what He saw His Father doing and said what He saw His Father saying. So Jesus said this to this woman because this is what His Father showed Him. In other words, because He saw it, He said it. And church, this is how one becomes whole. The Jesus on the inside of us has to rise up and say what God says. Yes, we have to call those things that be not as though they were and not continue to call the things that be as though they still are. There are countless testimonies out there of people who got the results they desired when they did this. This is how I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. It is how many people have been healed, delivered, and set free from things that they did everything else they knew to do to receive. But because we see Jesus ministering to people this way time and time again, this is obviously one of God’s preferred ways to ministering. So it’s time we get on board with how God says things get done instead of trying to get results some other way. As Psalm 18:30 says, “As for the Lord, His way is perfect!” Then, in verse 13, we see the results – “and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.” Notice that there is nothing said in this story of this woman glorifying God when she was bent over. No, she glorified God when she was made straight (i.e. things were made “right”)! You see, things that are crooked and twisted are not “right.” Sure, a lot of us have had things happen to us that have perverted God’s design for our lives. Yes, there are some things that we need to have Jesus “make straight” in our lives. Jesus will straighten you out! Amen! And then in verse 14, we see – “But the ruler of the synagogue … lifted up his hands and praised God for healing someone in his congregation!” Well, at least this is what he should have done. But no, this verse says, “(he) answered with indignation … and he said to the crowd, ‘There are six days on which men ought to work; therefore come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.’” So, what we see happening here is this Rabbi (i.e. pastor) did not like the fact that sick and infirmed people were coming to his synagogue to get Jesus to heal them and messing up his Sabbath meeting. You see, this is something that any ministry leader needs to guard against – the temptation to get in our routine of how things need to go in our service. We need to allow the Holy Spirit room to save, heal, and deliver in the midst of it. In other words, we ought to be okay and sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s plan interrupting our plan. Then we see in verse 15 how Jesus responded to this man’s point: He calls him a “Hypocrite!” Why did Jesus call this ruler of the synagogue a hypocrite? It was because in saying that there were six days in which man ought to work—particularly referring to the healing of people—he wasn’t healing anybody those six days, was he? So, by saying that people ought to be healing people on those six days, and him not doing it, this made him a hypocrite. Then Jesus goes into a great example in this verse of their hypocrisy by saying that all of these religious zealots, in their desire to protect the Sabbath, did not understand how hypocritical they really were—for they would loose their ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water it, but they were indignant about loosing this woman from her bondage. And do you know why? Because their animals were valuable to them, and this woman wasn’t. If this would have been this ruler of the synagogue’s wife or mother, he probably would not have been opposed to her being healed quite so much. Notice the terminology that Jesus used in this verse – “loose … from the stall, and lead it away to water it.” Here, Jesus is comparing being bound by an infirmity to an animal being bound to a stall and being loosed from an infirmity to an animal being loosed from a stall, being led away from that place of bondage, and giving it a drink. You see, when an animal is locked up in its stall, it can’t just go and do whatever it wants to do. It is imprisoned—not free to go where it wants to go and to do what it wants to do. This is what Jesus is likening our physical infirmities to: They keep us bound. They take away our freedom. We are at the whim of another. But being free from physical afflictions is just that—being free! Jesus likened it to being loosed from the stall and led away to be watered. This picture of being led away to be watered is the picture that the New Testament paints when it refers to “forgiveness.” So, saints, our Good Shepherd leads us beside still waters (Psalm 23:2)! That’s what healing is, my friends! Now when this ruler of the synagogue got indignant about Jesus setting the lady free on the Sabbath and Jesus showed him here that it was hypocritical because he would set his animals free, I can’t help be reminded of all these people in the world that would move heaven and earth to save a dolphin, a whale or a tree and care nothing about saving all those unborn babies that are being aborted. Listen saints—God has created man in His own image and likeness, not animals. So, while I’m certainly not against helping these certain animals that are in danger of going extinct, it is a totally wrong thing to esteem the life of animals more than the life of mankind. Amen? Now verse 16 holds some powerful truths that we need to consider: It begins with – “So ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham …” This indicates that healing “ought” to happen—on the Sabbath as well as the other six days of the week. In other words, healing is a “right” of God’s people. And why? Because, as Jesus said of her, this woman was “a daughter of Abraham.” In other words, because it was her covenant right as a child of Abraham! Healing was a part of their covenant, saints! It was promised! Therefore, her freedom from that infirmity was hers! Thus, the reason Jesus said in verse 12 – “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity!” while she was still bowed over in her condition. Saints, if it is ours under our covenant, then it’s as good as done! Then Jesus made the point that this woman was “whom Satan has bound.” You do realize that the vast majority of Christians have zero revelation of this one statement, right? Most would even dare to say that God was the one who had her bound to teach her something. Nope! It was Satan who had bound this woman up in this physical weakness that caused her to be bent over and not to be able to raise herself up! Never forget: God never binds and locks people up with anything! God liberates and makes free! Amen! Then Jesus said, “think of it – for eighteen years …” I see the phrase “think of it” as a little, back-handed slap in the face to that statement by that ruler of the synagogue that there are six days in which folks ought to work, so come and be healed on those days. Why? Because Jesus was saying here that if this guy was saying that there are six days that one ought to work, then shouldn’t this woman have been loosed by now, seeing that she has been in this condition for this long? And finally, we get to the end of the story in verse 17 – “And when He said these things, all His adversaries were put to shame.” You know, the devil is called the “adversary” (First Peter 5:8). So, this ruler of the synagogue and all the other hypocrites like him are simply imitating the nature of the wicked one here. Church, it is a perverted thing for those who claim to be children of God to act like children of the devil. Amen? When He said what things? Well, literally this would have been when Jesus exposed these religious leaders’ hypocrisy by giving the example of how they loosed and watered their animals on the Sabbath, thus violating the very thing they condemned Him for. But I see a spiritual lesson in this as well: You see, when we declare what Jesus declared in verse 16 regarding this woman’s right to be loosed from her infirmity because she was a daughter of Abraham, we put our adversary to shame. In other words, when the adversary himself is attempting to criticize us, telling us how we don’t deserve healing because we brought it on ourselves – maybe by not doing some natural things right or by making some mistakes spiritually, then we just rise up and boldly declare that we might have made some mistakes, but because we are of the seed of Abraham, we have a covenant with God and we “ought” to be loosed from our infirmity! Again, not because we deserve it, but because it is our covenant right! Hallelujah! You see, church, just as we have rights as being U.S. citizens, we have rights as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Philippians 3:20 tells us – “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Notice that Paul is saying, “our citizenship is in heaven”. He’s not saying that one day off in the future sometime that our citizenship will be in heaven when we are living there. No. He’s saying that our citizenship is in heaven right now! The word “is” literally means “it has its existence”. The Word of God tells us that our citizenship does not begin in heaven when we die and move there. It happens the moment we are born into God’s family, and when we enter God’s family, we become His nationality. The phrase “born again” that Jesus used could be translated “born from above.” That is why our citizenship is in heaven because we were born from heaven. You see, the Philippians, whom Paul was writing to, were Roman citizens and were quite proud of it. Paul was explaining to them that when they entered the kingdom of God, they changed citizenships and, as great as the rights they had as Romans were, there is no comparison to the rights and privileges they have as citizens of the kingdom of heaven. Paul knew this well because he too was a Roman citizen: In Acts 22:25-29 he exercised his rights as a Roman citizen, which is symbolic of our rights as citizens of heaven. Paul and some men went into the temple in Jerusalem where a riot began, and the Jews tried to kill him. After being rescued by soldiers and centurions and making a speech to the Jews, Paul was taken into the barracks to be beaten and questioned. As they bound him Paul said, “Is it lawful for you to scourge a man who is a Roman, and uncondemned?” That applies to us as citizens of heaven too, because when we were born from above, we were made righteous, and now stand “uncondemned.” Romans 8:1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…” A result of this lack of condemnation is what Paul said about it not being “lawful to scourge him”. The enemy has no right to pronounce any sentence or judgment on us because God has justified us and removed all traces of guilt from us. After Paul told the centurion that, the centurion went and told his commander to “take care what you do, for this man is a Roman.” So the commander came to Paul and asked him if he was a Roman and Paul replied “yes.” So “The commander answered, ‘With a large sum I obtained this citizenship’. And Paul said, “But I was born a citizen.” You see, a lot of people try to buy their way into the kingdom of God and its privileges, but inheritances only come one way, and that’s to be born into it. Verse 29 then says, “Then (when Paul said that) immediately those who were about to examine him withdrew from him; and the commander was also afraid after he found out that he was a Roman, and because they had bound him.” That’s the way the devil will react when you say that you are born of God and declare your rights as the righteousness of God. He knows that he has no right to bind you, but he wants to know if you realize it. Saints, our citizenship is in heaven, but we are currently living here. We must learn to work down here while we’re living up there. And that’s the reason we have been left here; to see His kingdom come and grow. Amen! So in Christ Jesus, we are today the seed of Abraham. We ought to be loosed from our infirmities. These spirits that try to bind us and keep us tied up don’t have any right to do so. We are free indeed! So enforce your rights today! You gotta fight for your rights – for what? For freedom! REVIEW
I hope you have been getting some practical truths out of our current series entitled “How To Be Made Whole.” I personally have enjoyed not only camping on verses like First Thessalonians 5:23 that teach us about God’s will to make us completely whole, but also looking at the specific examples in the Bible where people were made whole. How many of you know that the Bible contains the keys to wholeness? The Lord is so good to give us example after example in the Bible of those who did indeed line themselves up with God’s will and obtained their healing & wholeness. He did this to teach us how if we would do what they did, we can be made whole like they were. Amen? So we’ve looked at several examples so far such as the healing of the man by the Pool of Bethesda, Jesus’ cleansing of the ten lepers, the healing of Blind Bartimaeus, and then Jesus’ healing of Peter’s mother in law. We learned from this shorter example of healing how important “speaking to the mountain” is when it comes to us being made whole. We saw how in Luke’s account of this story, Jesus “rebuked the fever.” He didn’t pray to His Father to take it away. He didn’t plead with God to do it for them. No, He spoke to the fever! And so we asked the question – Can fevers hear? Well, based on what happened next in the story, we can conclude that they can hear because it says that the fever left her. And so if fevers can hear, then you can bet the bank that tumors can hear, colds can hear, headaches can hear, etc. Church, Jesus talked to inanimate things like trees (Mark 11:14 & Matthew 21:19), the wind, the sea (Mark 4:39 & Luke 8:24), and even encouraged His disciples to talk to the mountains (Mark 11:23)! Yes, we learned how Jesus said in Mark 11:23-24 that we shall speak to the mountain. He didn’t say that we pray to God about the mountain. And that’s the problem a lot of times when it comes to healing. In many cases, Christians are praying to God to heal the person. No, there is a time to pray and there is a time to say! More times than not, we are to actually speak to the sickness, take authority over it, and command it to leave in the name of Jesus. So then we went back to the Old Testament and looked at a very familiar story of David & Goliath and looked at how this is exactly how David tackled His giant – by speaking to it. Yes, we looked at that real life example - at how it describes the battle that takes place between our ears with the various voices, thoughts, and imaginations that arise in our minds when it comes to our giants. And we saw how David took care these “mind games” by speaking to them. I’ll tell you, church, learning to speak to the giants & mountains in our life is the key to seeing them removed. But if you and I shy away from our giants and always just walk around these mountains, they will remain. It’s time we face our giants and see them slain once and for all. Amen? I’d encourage you that if you have missed any of these teachings to go back and listen to / watch them, as they contained vital, Scriptural keys to being made whole. So let’s again go back over to our keynote verse for this series – First Thessalonians 5:23 – where we learn about God’s heart to see our whole man made whole. Again, this verse reads – “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Saints, there are so many awesome truths contained in this one verse, but I want us to look at one very important piece of information that it’s easy to overlook: Notice how Paul described God here as the God of peace. Now if you’ve paid attention, there are several different virtues that our God is the God of. But most of the time, He is called this – the God of peace (Romans 15:33, 16:20, Philippians 4:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:16, Hebrews 13:20). And I think that is significant. You see, I don’t know if most Christians would refer to God in this one way if given the choice. We might call Him the God of love or the God of power, but the Scriptures refer to Him this way far more than any other virtue. So the question then is, why? Why is peace the primary way God is described. Well, when one comes to understand what peace really is, it becomes clear. You see, peace is not just some state of mental tranquility. Nor is it just an absence of war & conflict. Peace can include these things, but the peace the Scriptures reveal to us carries more of the idea of wholeness. This idea originated in the Old Testament when God revealed Himself to Gideon as “Jehovah Shalom” – the Lord is peace. You see, the Hebrew word shalom didn’t describe peace as we like to use it. It described “completeness, soundness, wellness, as in welfare, health, and prosperity.” It came from the root word salem which described something being perfect, complete, or whole. In fact, I love one expositor’s description of shalom as “nothing missing & nothing broken.” So this sounds a little bit more like the subject at hand, doesn’t it? When we speak of the God of peace, we speak of the God of wholeness, soundness, and completeness. He is not the God of brokenness, but of wholeness. In other words, He is not in the business of brokenness; He’s in the business of wholeness! So last week, we started looking at another example from the Gospels of a woman who was in desperate need of a touch from the Lord. Yet, this woman realized that in order for her to receive this “touch,” it wasn’t going to come by her waiting on Him to touch her; she knew she was going to have get to Him and touch Him. Of course, I am talking about the woman with the issue of blood. Now before we get into this story, I want to remind you of something that is very important, and it is this: With all of these accounts of healing in the Gospels, there is a reason it is in here, and it is not just for a history lesson; these things are recorded for you and I to discover three things:
So when we read these stories of how an individual was made whole, we need to read it through this lens and make it personal to our lives. AND SUDDENLY Now I want us to begin looking at this familiar story of the woman with the issue of blood. This is such a powerful story that perfectly reflects how we can be made whole in our lives. Let’s begin by looking at Matthew’s account … Our story of this woman technically begins in Matthew 9:20, but I want you to notice something that is very different about her story. It begins with the following two words – “And suddenly …” Now by throwing this phrase in there, it shows us that something else was happening for there to be an “And suddenly.” For one, the conjunction “And” indicates that this is being tied together with whatever was just happening. Then the word “suddenly” shows us that something happened “unexpectedly.” You sometimes find this word “suddenly” in the Bible when, for instance, Jesus and His disciples were out on a boat in peaceful waters and then “suddenly,” a storm arose. You find it also in Acts chapter 2 when the disciples were in the upper room praying and “suddenly” there came a sound from heaven and the Holy Spirit filled the house. On another occasion in the Book of Acts, we see God sending an earthquake “suddenly” to free Paul and Silas from that Philippian prison. You get the picture, right? When the word “suddenly” is used, we are seeing an interruption in the normal course of nature. So this woman’s story “suddenly & unexpectedly” interrupted something. And what was that? Well, if you read the prior two verses, you’ll find that another story had already begun – the story of Jairus, the ruler of the Synagogue. We see in verses 18-19, that this man came to Jesus and said, “My daughter has just died, but come and lay Your hand on her and she will live.” And so Jesus arose and began following him along with His disciples to this man’s house. And then “unexpectedly,” this woman with the issue of blood, barges into what was supposed to be Jairus’ day. Yes, she comes “out of nowhere” and gets her own miracle. Now you need to understand that this chain of events is very uncommon in the Scriptures. Usually when a story is started, we don’t see another story interjected in the middle of it. But this was different. And do you know why? It’s because she determined for it to be that way. You see, sometimes you gotta “Interrupt the Story!” What I mean by this is that there is a customary order to things and a plan that everyone expects things to go according to. And sometimes, the order and the plan need to get interrupted! Sometimes we have to do what we have to do to get our miracle like this woman did, even when it upsets the normal course of things. You see, there were several things that were violated in this account of healing: Number one, again Jesus was going to heal Jairus’ daughter and this woman interrupted a good thing that was supposed to happen. Number two, this woman violated the Law by being considered unclean and putting all of these people who were thronging Jesus in danger of being made unclean as well, not to mention trying to touch Jesus and risking making the Rabbi unclean! But here is my point: If you want to get different results than the majority, then you’re going to need to do things differently than the majority! Don’t just do things the way everyone else does—if you want different fruit than everyone else, then you need to plant differently from everyone else. One thing that I do when I read these accounts of healings & miracles in the Word of God is I look for the actions and characteristics of the person receiving their answer. And do you know what you see? Like in this account of the woman with the flow of blood, they were not just casually believing; no, they were aggressively believing for their miracle! Like we’ve seen already, blind men cried out to the point that the people around them were telling them to shut up (i.e. Blind Bart). In others, women followed the Lord patiently crying out for His mercy to receive a miracle for their loved ones (i.e. the Syrophoenician woman). In many of these accounts of healings, people went to extreme measures to get what they needed from the Lord and were not concerned with what people thought or what people might do. A couple who were friends of ours had been believing God for a child and after the woman conceived their miracle, the baby was born prematurely and they were told she would not live. So the couple decided they were going to believe God, and they also decided that they were not going to let anyone in that room where they kept the child unless they were talking faith! Of course, this offended the family members who traveled to come see them and offer their condolences because they wouldn’t even see them. But guess what? They got their miracle! No, they were not cordial or polite, but sometimes we must decide—Do we want people to like and accept us or do we want our miracle. Sometimes, we cannot have it both ways. THIS WOMAN’S ISSUES So let’s move over now to Mark’s account of this story because I like the details he gives us concerning this woman & her plight … Her story begins in Mark 5:25 when we are told that this woman had a “flow of blood” for twelve years. Now this woman’s condition is not clear in terms of a modern medical diagnosis, but here are some other translations rendering:
Therefore, I think it’s clear that she was hemorrhaging with a woman’s issue. Now according to Leviticus chapter 15, a woman who has a discharge of blood from her body was considered unclean. And in order for her to be regarded as clean, the bleeding would need to stop for at least seven days. Therefore, because of this woman’s condition of continual bleeding, the woman would have lived in a constant state of uncleanness according to the Law. On top of that, anyone who touched her, anything that she laid on, and everything that she sat on was also considered unclean, and those who came into contact with these things had to wash themselves and their clothes, and be unclean themselves until evening. (see verses 19-27) But notice how this verse also tells us that this woman’s issue had been going on “for twelve years.” So picture what was going on in this woman’s life: She was considered unclean for twelve years—meaning, anyone she touched or who touched her would have been considered unclean for a certain period of time. So it stands to reason that she did not have much physical contact at all for twelve years. Now consider that for a moment: Can you imagine what it might be like to have no physical contact with another human being for twelve years? Not a hug, not a handshake and not even a pat on the back? That would have been psychologically taxing for anyone. So I make this point because I think it is important for us to understand that this woman with the issue of bloods’ “issue” was not just her hemorrhaging; she would have had several other “issues” as well. You see, while we might not all be able to relate to this woman’s physical issue, we might have some who can relate to all of her other issues that came through it. Some of us might have also been in a situation where we didn’t have the physical contact with others that we would have liked. Some of us might have been dismissed, ignored, or rejected like this woman obviously was. And, church, sometimes those things can have damaging effects on our souls. In fact, I’m convinced that some people have been mortally wounded by these situations & circumstances and never quite recovered from those things. Friends, the Lord wants to make us whole of those “issues” as well, and the same principles that make one whole from various physical issues will work on this soulish issue as well. Amen? And we go on to read in Mark’s Gospel, we see that these weren’t her only issues, because notice what Mark 5:26 says, “and (she) had suffered many things from many physicians.” Other versions of the Bible translate this phrase this way:
Thank God for doctors! They are on our side! We are on the same team! Many of us would not be here if it weren’t for doctors and medicine. So we are not against them, nor should they be against us for believing in spiritual healing. But while we are certainly not against doctors or medicines, we should never put our full trust in doctors or medicines. We need to always remember: They are just “practicing.” They are not the true expert opinion on the subject! Therefore, we are to put our trust in God alone! Now this does not mean that we do not ever go to a doctor or take any medicine. We just do these things in the name of Jesus—meaning, we are doing what we believe He is leading us to do. And if He leads you to take a certain medicine, then take it in Jesus’ name—putting your focus on Him to do the work, not necessarily the medicine. So if the doctor tells you to have a procedure, don’t just say okay. Pray about it. Find out what the Lord will lead you to do. (Compare with Second Chronicles 16:12 – Asa’s disease in his feet and how he sought only the physicians and not the Lord) Mark 5:26 then goes on to say, “She had spent all that she had.” Luke’s account says, “she spent all of her livelihood” (Luke 8:43). It can be expensive to be sick, church. Just think about it: If we lived like the Bible tells us that we can and should (i.e. not partying, drinking, smoking, being sick, getting divorced, etc.), we would certainly have more flexibility financially, right? You know what that tells me? Things associated with the kingdom of darkness take you further than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and certainly cost you more than you want to pay. So even though this woman had spent all of her livelihood, doing everything she could in the natural, Mark 5:26 goes on to tell us – “and (she) was no better, but rather grew worse.” Boy, I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who have this same testimony. They’ve got some serious physical, mental, or emotional problems, and they have invested a lot of time and resources into being made well. However, they have gotten “no better.” On the contrary, they have “rather grown worse.” Again, I like the way Dr. Luke describes this: In Luke 8:43, we are told – “and could not be healed by any.” Isn’t it refreshing to hear a doctor tell us that all of these physicians “could not” heal her. You see, a problem with some doctors is many of them overstep their boundaries. Some will say things like, “You can’t be healed.” No, what they should say is— “I can’t get you healed.” Many will say, “You just have to accept this.” No, what they should say is— “You don’t have to accept my professional opinion.” Now when it comes to this woman’s situation, do you know someone like this? Or better yet, is this you? If so, know this today – Sometimes it’s a good place to be when you have exhausted all your options, because then you are forced to turn completely to God or not. This lady was in a desperate situation because she had no more money to pay the physicians. So needless to say, this woman had “issues.” And these issues were more than just the physical one. She had all of the other issues to go along with it like the obvious relationship issue of not being able to be around people or be touched by anyone for the past twelve years. She was also in financial straights because she had spent her entire livelihood on trying to get better. There’s no telling how many other “issues” this woman had either. So let’s now turn to what the Bible says she did. Let’s move on to Mark 5:27 and see how this woman interrupted her story … STEPS TOWARDS WHOLENESS Mark 5:27 begins by saying, “When she heard about Jesus …” Again, we see that this is how faith comes—by hearing. It does not come by “seeing, feeling, or experiencing;” faith only comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). However, notice that this Scripture does not say that she heard from Jesus (i.e. hear the Word); this Scripture says that she heard about Him. This proves that faith comes not just from hearing the Bible or the truths contained in it. No, faith also can come by simply hearing about what Jesus has done in people’s lives. This shows us the power of testimonies. They too can produce faith in people! So what was she hearing about Jesus that produced faith in her. Well, she was obviously hearing what she had faith for. Which was what? Well, this verse goes on to say, “… she came behind Him in the crowd and touched His garment.” And then verse 28 goes on to say, “For she said, ‘If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” Now let me throw this in here, that in Matthew 9:20, we are told that she “touched the hem of His garment.” The hem of His garment was where the tassels hung, which according to Numbers 15:38, were meant to remind the Jews of the Lord’s commandments contained in the Torah and to keep them from following their deceitful hearts into spiritual harlotry. Perhaps this woman knew this and she was symbolically showing her desire to take hold of the Word of God and take her healing! Mark 11:23-24 talks about “believing we receive when we pray,” and the word “receive” actually means “to take.” So this apparently is a big key to healing – to take it. But again, this was where her faith was at, which is evidenced by what she said – that if she may touch His clothes – only the hem of His garment – she would be made well. Evidently, she was hearing that people who touched His clothes, His garment, or the hem of His garment (as Luke puts it) were getting healed! Amen! You see, what we hear is absolutely important! Now I want you to notice how Mark 5:27 tells us that this woman “came behind” Jesus. Now, of course, this could have been the only way which she could get to Jesus, for as Jesus’ disciples said, the multitudes were thronging Him (Mark 5:31). But it could also have been because she was sneaking up on Him to take what she needed. The reason I believe that this latter reason is the case is because when Jesus asked who touched Him, she didn’t immediately fess up, but rather was “fearing and trembling” (Mark 5: 33). Again, this shows us that receiving from God is not always going to be in the way people would consider appropriate or even ethical. This woman was not even supposed to be out in the public, for she was unclean according to the law. So she did what she had to do to get to Jesus and take her healing. Amen! And we need to realize just how dangerous this was for her. Again, this woman was considered to be continually unclean, and whoever touched her or she touched—whether through physical contact or simply her clothing brushing up against something or someone—would be considered unclean. So for her to pass through this crowd—probably bumping into and touching many different people from the crowd that was thronging Jesus—was a crime punishable by death. On top of that, but Jairus, one of the rulers of the synagogue, was present there, and he had the authority to have her stoned. So this woman was running a great risk by doing what she did here! Do you know what we can learn from this? The living faith which comes by hearing will have works and actions tied together with it that will seem unorthodox or downright scary to the carnal mind. But as I always like to say, the best fruit is out on the end of the branch where there is less security and more risk. Amen! Now again, in Mark 5:28, we are told – “For she said …” In the Amplified version, it denotes – “she kept saying.” You see, sometimes, some good self-talk is necessary! Talk to your soul and tell it – “This is going to happen or that is going to happen!” This is what faith does—it says! Faith has a voice! Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks! So if you want to know what is in your heart in abundance, just listen to what you keep saying. You see, this woman kept saying, “If only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well” because she believed in her heart that this was true. It was the hope of her heart! Therefore, it was her repetitive statement! So let’s consider the process of this woman’s faith here:
So what happened next? Well, Mark 5:29 tells us – “Immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction.” So “immediately” when this woman did what she kept saying she was going to do, she got what she said she would get. Church, we need to know how our faith can get us specifically what we desire. I mean, this woman kept saying that if she can just touch Jesus’ clothes she would be healed, and guess what? She got exactly that, “immediately”—feeling in her body that she was healed of her affliction. HE TOUCHED ME OR YE TOUCHED HE? But then we see what happened next in Mark 5:30 – “And Jesus, immediately knowing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?” Isn’t it interesting that Jesus immediately knew inside Himself that some of His power had gone out of Him and He didn’t even initiate it? I think a lot of people think Jesus was in charge of when and how much power went out of Him, but this verse teaches us something different. Evidently, Jesus was not the only one determining when His power was dispersed. In this case, this woman placed a demand on the healing anointing that He possessed. And I can guarantee you this – if she could do this yesterday, we can do the same today, for He is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore! Amen! However, even though we see Jesus knowing that power had gone out of Him, we see how He asked – “Who touched me?” Now most Christians probably believe that Jesus knew the answer to this question, and was just asking to get the woman to identify herself, but I’m not so sure of this. I think we assume Jesus always knew everything, but we need to remember that Jesus was not operating in the omniscience of God all the time. He was still a man – a man filled with the Holy Spirit. And it was this Holy Spirit, Who revealed things to Him at times. So I personally believe this was one of those times where Jesus didn’t have light on who it was who touched Him. But Jesus’ disciples didn’t have any problem believing He didn’t know either because notice what verse 31 says … “But His disciples said to Him, ‘You see the multitude thronging You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?’ “ Notice that Jesus’ disciples thought it was a strange thing for Him to ask, “Who touched My clothes?” when there were multitudes thronging Him. In other words, there were a lot of people touching His clothes. So for Him to ask this question was perplexing to them. They were like – “Duh, a bunch of people are touching your clothes, Jesus. What do you mean?” What this teaches us, however, is that people can be going through the motions, doing or saying certain things, but that doesn’t mean they will all get the same results. In this situation, hundreds of people were touching Jesus, but one particular person, put a demand on the anointing, and He perceived power going out of Himself. So what Jesus was really asking was – “Who really touched Me?” In other words, people can say all the right things and do all the right things, and still not connect and get results. So a question then is this – What is the difference between how all of these other people touched Jesus and how this woman touched Him? Well, the obvious answer is – She touched Him by faith. You see, all of the other people (which I’m sure some of them were getting healed, but probably not all of them) were not putting a draw on the same power that this woman did or else Jesus would have not perceived power coming out of Him when she touched Him. So there was something different about this situation, and God obviously wants us to get that difference by recording this in the Scriptures. Now in Mark’s account, Jesus said, “Who touched My clothes?” but in Luke 8:45, he said that Jesus asked, “Who touched Me?” Either way, touching Him or touching His clothes would have made Jesus unclean according to the Law. And we see this throughout Jesus’ ministry that things that seemed so black & white according to the Law, were oftentimes violated and transgressed. However, these times where Jesus didn’t follow the Law to a T like the religious leaders thought He should, were always in meeting the needs of a person. In other words, love always trumped their religion. Church, we must always strive to keep ourselves from being so dogmatic on our doctrine that we forget about the needs and desires of other people. People are what are important to God, not our strict adherence to the Law or the Bible. Sure, we should not err on the side of violating the Word, but if it comes between loving people or loving our doctrine, people are more important. Now I think it is very interesting that a major point in this account of healing was “touching”… The woman said that if she could just touch his clothes she would be made well and Jesus spun around and asked “Who touched Me?” All of this was happening when her particular affliction had doomed her to not touching anyone or even touching anything that would touch their clothing. This shows me that what she did to take her healing was such a huge step of faith. Even to the point that she had to do something that the Law indicated was “unclean.” Amen! Then in Mark 5:32-33, we see what Jesus did next – “And He looked around to see her who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth.” So at this point, when Jesus looked around and saw this woman, he apparently then knew it was her. And then she, fearing and trembling, fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. I think it is interesting to see how this woman reacted after receiving her healing ... First of all, notice that she was “fearing and trembling.” Of course, this is referring to the fear she must have had of potentially being stoned for breaking God’s law and going into public, touching whoever she had to in order to get to Jesus. But I want us to look at it from another perspective—notice that this verse says that she was fearing and trembling knowing what had happened to her. This speaks volumes to me, and portrays the heart of so many Christians … You see, so many feel they are asking too much of God at times or they are irritating Him in some way. And I’m sure this woman thought she had upset the Lord by “cutting in line” and getting what she needed without asking first. But notice the Lord did not rebuke her for this or even acknowledge how she did what she did in any way. He just simply said, “Go in peace.” I just believe the Lord loves it when His people receive from Him, however that looks. Then notice that she “came and fell down before Him …” This, to me, shows this woman’s heart. She didn’t run from Him; she ran to Him. Friends, we must learn to always do this. When everything in our emotions is telling us that we missed it and made a mistake, run to the Lord and fall down before Him—trusting in His mercy and His grace. Amen! Finally, notice that she “told Him the whole truth.” She didn’t tell Him a half truth or start making excuses as to why she did what she did. She simply told Him the “whole truth.” Friends, walking in truth is a major key to being set free. It is when we cover our mistakes and weaknesses that the Lord cannot free us from them. You see, there’s something to be said for being a person who is humble & transparent enough to tell the whole truth. I think most people like staying in the darkness and not fully disclosing everything that they have been through. And I get it – it’s hard to trust that people won’t look at us differently afterwards or that they won’t use that information to tear us down. But there is power in not hiding these things and putting them out there. I mean, how can we get healing of something that we aren’t willing to bring to the surface. And the fact is, a lot of people have either had things done to them or have done things to others that have never been talked about. And these things can very well be a major hindrance to what we see Jesus saying next to this woman … Mark 5:34 says, “And He said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your affliction.” This one truth right here completely counters so much popular theology: Notice that Jesus said out of His own mouth that it was not His power that made this woman well; He said her own faith was what made her well! If this seems strange to you, let’s look at a few other things that Jesus said to those who came to receive from Him:
So here we have three other witnesses (all out of Jesus’ own mouth I might add) that clearly show us that it is one’s own faith that heals them, not God’s. Now, of course, this does not mean that we are not healed by means of the power and anointing of God. That should go without saying. But the truth is that since Jesus, the grace of God Himself, has come, it is our faith that simply receives that power and anointing that has already been given by God’s grace. Understanding this is the key to learning how to receive our healing from the Lord. We are not waiting on God. We are not looking for Him to do it. No, we are believing in what He has already done and expecting to receive it by faith & hope. HOW TO CHANGE THE NARRATIVE So this is a great time to change the narrative that you might have been on for however long you’ve been going through whatever it is that you have. Yes, you can interrupt your current story and put a final chapter to it. So in closing, let’s look at a few ways that we can interrupt our story and change this narrative of our lives. And I want to do this by looking at the beginning lines of a few of our popular novels … Now one of the most well known books in our nation’s history is the one called Moby Dick written by Herman Melville. And does anyone know what the opening three words are of this famous book? It is “Call me Ishmael.” Of course, this opening line of this classic novel is one of the most iconic and memorable in literature. This simple yet powerful sentence introduces the novel's narrator and sets the stage for the story to unfold. But I think it illustrates something that some people do that has caused their story to unfold … You see, some of us have had them written because of a certain identity. Like Moby Dick begins with “Call me Ishmael,” some of our lives have gone a certain course because of what we call ourselves. Yes, our identity has determined our reality, which has produced our story. Abram & Sarai are a great example of this. Coming from a pagan lifestyle, they were called to leave their hometown and live a life of faith, following this new God. They were even given promises from Him of how He was going to bless them. But even with these promises, it was a constant state of wandering for them as “they dwelt in the land of promise as strangers” (Hebrews 11:9). Then God changed their names – changing Abram’s name to Abraham, meaning “the father of many nations,” and changing Sarai’s name to Sarah, meaning “a Princess.” And when God changed their names, everything changed! This is when they conceived the promise that they had for 25 years. So what we see in this story is that when there was a name change, this is when there was a life change. This is when the promises of God become conceived – when we change our identity. If that’s you, it’s time to interrupt your story. Yes, some of us might need to say, “Don’t call me Ishmael anymore. Call me Isaac.” Now some of our stories have been written because of certain attitudes, mindsets, and mentalities … Most of us can quote that iconic opening line of Charles Dickens’ novel A Tale of Two Cities – “It was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.” That reminds me of one of those glass half full / glass half empty kind of statements that a lot of people like to make. You see, some people will look at their situation as the best of times while others will look at them as the worst of times. Did you know that a lot of times our stories have gone the way they have simply because of how we see things? Two people can walk through very similar circumstances and one can see it as the worst of times and the other can see it as the best of times. It’s not that their situations are all that much different, but the way they view it is completely different. For example, it might be two people get laid off from their job. Well, one person might view it with that glass half empty kind of mentality and say in their heart, “This is so terrible! What am I going to do? I’m going to lose everything! I can’t believe they did this to me! I’ll never forgive them!” However, the other person might have that glass half full mentality and have a totally different perspective like – “Well, I guess God has something better for me. His plan is always perfect. I will choose to trust Him. Who knows why my employer laid me off. Perhaps things were tough on their end and they had to make some really tough decisions. I bless them and trust God’s blessing on me.” I know those are two polar-opposite responses, but they can greatly determine our future. And I can guarantee you that there are a lot of people who respond to things they are dealt in life with terrible attitudes & mindsets, and it set them on a course that they’ve never recovered from. If that’s you, it’s time to interrupt your story. A less familiar opening line of a Book is what was being announced on the streets of London in the book series The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It reads – “The King is dead. Long live the Queen.” This reminds me of the opening words of the Book of Joshua that read – “After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, saying: ‘Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel.’” (Joshua 1:1-2). Now I want you to notice what the Lord apparently had to say to Joshua here. Now we can only speculate on what was going on here, but there is the likelihood that Joshua, and all the rest of the children of Israel for that matter, were grieving over the death of Moses. I mean, he was their Deliverer (i.e. Savior) and was used by God to be the one who connected them with Him. So when he died, I can all but guarantee you that there was a difficult time moving on. There was likely an unusual amount of grief & mourning, coupled together with hopelessness and despair because after all, who could fill Moses’ shoes? So that’s the context of this story of Joshua, and why God had to tell him – “The King is dead.” But at the same time, the Lord told Joshua – “Long live the Queen.” Of course, I’m referring to the fact that it’s time to move on and go on into the next phase of God’s plan to possess the Promised Land. Do you think that might be God’s Word to some of us here today? Again, if this is you, then it’s time to interrupt your story. Yes, it’s time to move on from that person, place, or thing that is now dead and “arise and go over this Jordan” to possess our Promised Land. I’d be willing to bet a pretty penny that the Lord is saying this very same thing to some of you today. Church, whatever it may be that has caused our story to be written like it has, know today that it is possible to erase the past and see a new narrative written in your life. Yes, you can see it changed, like this woman with the issue of blood did, to have a “happy ending” rather than the sad, less than desirable continual repeating of history that has plagued your life – and this will happen as we do one or more of the following:
Write your own happy ending today, church. Amen! REVIEW
In our current series entitled “How To Be Made Whole,” we are learning not only how it is the Lord’s will for our whole man to be made whole, but also how this can occur. But, you know, it’s not good enough just to know God wills something. There are a lot of things that God wants and doesn’t get. For example, do you remember how Jesus – the One who said what He heard the Father saying – said, “O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem … How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (See Matthew 23:37)? Notice how Jesus said that there was something that the Lord wanted to see happen. He willed to gather the children of Israel under His wings, protecting & providing for them. However, they were not willing to let that happen. This shows us that God’s will doesn’t always come to pass just because He wants it. No, He will never usurp our will to get His. So as we’ve seen, God’s will is certainly that our whole man be sanctified completely and be made whole. But it’s not automatic. We need to also be willing for that to happen. Amen? So that’s what we started off this series of teachings learning – how Jesus, in the story of the man healed at the Pool of Bethesda, asked him, “Do you want to be made whole?” We learned how this question is foundational for all of us being made whole – Do we really want it? Because since God wants it for us, we can have it if we just want it too. But since then, we’ve looked at a couple of other examples of how others were made whole. In other words, we looked at specific examples of how those who did indeed line themselves up with God’s will obtained their healing & wholeness. We did this, knowing that these things are recorded for our instruction, teaching us that if we do what they did, we can be made whole like they were. Amen? So we looked at the Healing of the Ten Lepers and saw how, while all ten of them were cleansed from their leprosy, one of them (a Samaritan) returned to the Lord and was made whole. We spent a couple of weeks on this story, learning what this Samaritan did to get something more than his friends. Then, over the past two weeks, we’ve looked at another story in the Gospels where healing occurred – Blind Bartimaeus. In this story, we learned some powerful truths about how one obtains wholeness from the Lord – such as, the importance of getting the Lord’s attention, crying out no matter what the voices around us and within us are saying, throwing aside those beggar’s garments, and learning to look up. I’d encourage you that if you have missed any of these teachings to go back and listen / watch to them as they contained vital, Scriptural keys to being made whole. But now let’s go back over to our keynote verse for this series – First Thessalonians 5:23 – where we learn about God’s heart to see our whole man made whole. Again, this verse reads – “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We’ve already pulled out from this verse some powerful truths – the first one being how this verse reveals to us that we are a three-part being – spirit, soul, and body. Paul said here that this is who we are “completely” and “wholly.” Therefore, God wants you and I sanctified and preserved in all three parts of who we are. Isn’t it awesome, saints, to know that God cares about our entire, whole man. No, it’s not just the spiritual things that He wants taken care of. Sure, He cares about our spirit and our eternal & inward condition, but He cares about the body too. Yes, He wants us just as physically healthy as we are spiritually healthy. Not only that, but he cares about our soul’s condition as well. That means he wants that part of us that makes us who were are (i.e. our life) to be made whole as well. So this includes everything! Yes, every part of us has the potential for being healed & whole, set apart and kept. Amen! We’ve also noted how the word “may” at the beginning of this verse indicates that while it’s possible for this to happen, it may or may not. And that is completely dependent on what we were talking about earlier – whether we line our will up with God’s will. We also learned how by throwing the word “Himself” in there, the apostle Paul is showing us that this process is going to completely be the Lord’s doing. In other words, the Lord is not going to need any of our help sanctifying us or preserving us. While we must believe, the work is all His to do it. Therefore, all the glory is all His too. So let’s get into another truth from First Thessalonians 5:23: Notice how Paul described God here as the God of peace. Now if you’ve paid attention, there is several different virtues that our God is the God of. But most of the time, He is called this – the God of peace (Romans 15:33, 16:20, Philippians 4:9, 2 Thessalonians 3:16, Hebrews 13:20). And I think that is significant. You see, I don’t know if most Christians would refer to God in this one way if given the choice. We might call Him the God of love or the God of power, but the Scriptures refer to Him this way far more than any other virtue. So the question then is, why? Why is peace the primary way God is described. Well, when one comes to understand what peace really is, it becomes clear. You see, peace is not just some state of mental tranquility. Nor is it just an absence of war & conflict. Peace can include these things, but the peace the Scriptures reveal to us carries more of the idea of wholeness. This idea originated in the Old Testament when God revealed Himself to Gideon as “Jehovah Shalom” – the Lord is peace. You see, the Hebrew word “shalom” didn’t describe peace as we like to use it. It described “completeness, soundness, wellness, as in welfare, health, and prosperity.” It came from the root word “salem” which described something being perfect, complete, or whole. In fact, I love one expositor’s description of “shalom” as “nothing missing & nothing broken.” So this sounds a little bit more like the subject at hand, doesn’t it? When we speak of the God of peace, we speak of the God of wholeness, soundness, and completeness. He is not the God of brokenness, but of wholeness. In other words, He is not in the business of brokenness; He’s in the business of wholeness! REBUKING THE FEVER So today, I would like us to look at another instance of Jesus’ healing & making someone whole. And this one is probably not one of the first one’s folks will think of, nor is there a ton of Scriptural real estate given to it, but it’s a great example nonetheless – the healing of Peter’s mother-in-law. Did you even know that Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law? Now you know, there are some people who believe this is why Peter wound up denying the Lord those three times, right? You might ask why – because Jesus healed his mother-in-law. LOL! No, in all seriousness, Peter evidently had a great mother-in-law because of what we see about her in this story. So let’s dive into it – In fact, this story is told in three of the four Gospels – Matthew 8, Mark 1, and Luke 4 – but we are going to just look at Luke’s account (Luke 4:38-39) because of something Jesus specifically does in this story. Now in Luke 4:38, notice how this account begins with “Now he arose from the synagogue.” It would be good for us to back up and read what happened in the synagogue right before this account of healing because it ties into what we are going to be talking about today—the authority that we have to command the powers of darkness to leave (Compare verse 35). Then we are told that Jesus entered Simon’s (Peter’s) house: So evidently Peter had a house. I think a lot of us have imagined that when guys like Peter went on to follow Jesus, that they got rid of all they had. After all, isn’t this the price of discipleship – to sell all you have and follow Christ. But you would have to add to the Bible to say that this is what everyone who becomes the Lord’s disciple is called to do. Evidently, Peter still had his house even though he didn’t get to stay there much. You know, having things like transportation and houses are tools. Being blessed with things is not a bad thing. They are tools with which God blesses us with in order to bless others with. I mean, where would Jesus have gone if Peter did not have a house? In fact, in Mark 1:29, this account of this story called it the house of Simon & Andrew. So what we see here is that not only was this Simon Peter’s house, it was also Andrew, Peter’s brother’s house too. On top of that, evidently Peter’s mother-in-law also lived there as well. So what I take away from this is the Lord’s heart to make whole everything in our house. Amen! Yes, the Lord cares about everything which concerns us – our people, our things, etc. All that is within our house, Jesus can and will make whole! And why? Because He loves and favors us! Know this today, church! Because you are highly favored by your heavenly Father, He wants to “perfect the things which concern” you (See Psalm 138:8). That means that God will take care of everything in our “house” – everything that is part of our lives and that we value. Amen! The next thing we see in this story is that Simon Peter’s wife’s mother was “sick with a high fever” Now it is interesting to note the word that Luke uses for “sick” here because the King James Version says, “taken with.” It comes from the Greek word sunecho which literally means “to hold together” or “to grip tightly.” It was also used in Luke 8:45 to describe how the crowds hemmed Christ in, in Luke 19:43 to describe an army surrounding Jerusalem, and in Luke 22:63 to describe the soldiers holding Jesus in order to beat Him. This gives us an interesting picture of certain sicknesses, doesn’t it? The high fever she had, had her hemmed in. It surrounded her, attacking her like an army. It gripped her and held her so that it could beat her. This doesn’t sound like sickness is our friend, does it? No, sickness and disease are not a blessing; it is our enemy! And it seeks to oppress, defeat, and destroy us! Here is a good analogy: Notice that the King James Version says, “taken with.” There have been some very popular movies released in the past several years with the title, “Taken.” Spoiler alert: In these movies, the story is basically of this man’s family being individually taken captive and how this man (Liam Neesan) is on a mission to recover them. Well, in these couple of movies, first his daughter and then his wife was “taken” against their will, were forced to go with and do what these people who kidnapped them wanted, etc. So my point is that when we are “taken,” then our free will is not involved—which is always how God does things. Therefore, it should be rather obvious to us that sickness that attempts to take us captive, not giving us a choice, is not from God. For example, there are those who try to make things like paralysis out to be God’s will for them—citing these things as their “cross to bear.” No! These things cannot be what Jesus was referring to when He said, “take up your cross and follow me.” And do you know why? It’s because Jesus said to take it up. So if you do not have the option to either pick it up or lay it down, then it cannot be your cross. Amen? No, the “cross” that Jesus was referring to in these passages of Scripture is an obvious reference to denying ourselves and laying our life down for the cause of Christ; it’s not our wheelchair, our walking cane or any other ailment that we cannot simply just lay down when we decide to. So when someone comes to you and says, “No, this wheelchair is just my cross to bear,” just ask them to prove it and get up and walk - because, again, if it is your cross, then you can take it up or lay it down by your free will. And this is exactly how you can tell what is God’s will for you to walk through: Just ask yourself the question: Naturally speaking, do I have a choice to go through this or is it being forced on me against my will? The Good Shepherd (Jesus) leads and guides. The bad cowboy (the thief) ropes and binds. Luke also tells us that it was a “high fever”: So as Dr. Luke was known for doing, he gives a little more detailed description of the affliction. So in other words, she had an extremely high temperature. So how did Jesus deal with this high fever? Well, the way most Christians who even consider the spiritual side of things would deal with it, this might mirror the last phrase in verse 38 – “and they made request of Him concerning her.” In other words, we would pray for them, making a request of God to take the fever away. But that’s not how Jesus dealt with it. Verse 39 tells us that “… He stood over her and rebuked the fever …” Now to “rebuke” does not mean to simply say, “I rebuke you.” No, to “rebuke” something means to chide it, to ridicule it, to correct from a position of authority. But I want you to notice what He was specifically rebuking here. Jesus was actually addressing the fever! He was not chiding Peter! He was not ridiculing his mother-in-law! He was not even rebuking the devil, per se! Get this: Jesus was talking to the fever! Amen! But a good question is: Can fevers hear? ... Well, Luke 4:39 goes on to tell us, “… and it left her.” So evidently fevers can hear! And if fevers can hear, then you can bet the bank that tumors can hear, colds can hear, headaches can hear, etc. Yes, church, Jesus talked to things like trees (Mark 11:14 & Matthew 21:19), the wind, the sea (Mark 4:39 & Luke 8:24), and even encouraged His disciples to talk to the mountains (Mark 11:23)! In that latter example, Jesus said in Mark 11:23-24 that we shall speak to the mountain. He didn’t say that we pray to God about the mountain. And that’s the problem a lot of times when it comes to healing. In many cases, Christians are praying to God to heal the person. No, there is a time to pray and there is a time to say! More times than not, we are to actually speak to the sickness, take authority over it, and command it to leave in the name of Jesus. This honor and privilege have all the saints! (see Psalm 149:9) TALKING TO OUR GIANTS So the way to see these mountains removed is to speak to them. But did you know this is how we see our giants removed as well … One of my favorite examples of this in the Scriptures is in the story of David & Goliath (See First Samuel 17:4-54): In this example, David had a giant just like all of us have our giants. These are things that we are confronted with that must be overcome in order to progress in our walk with God. Now it is important to understand that this story is a real-life example of an encounter between a young shepherd boy and a massive giant warrior who lived on the earth. So this definitely happened. However, it is also a type & shadow of something that we all will face in our lives. No, we are not all going to face a literal giant in the flesh, but we will face things that will seem “giant” to us. And the key here is facing these insurmountable issues that come against us and not shying away from them like the majority of the soldiers of Israel were doing upon David’s arrival. So in this story, we are told that Goliath came to present himself before the armies of Israel for 40 days and verbally taunted them twice a day. So not only was Goliath’s appearance intimidating, but his words made Israel “dismayed and greatly afraid” (vs.11). Now how many of you can relate to this? How many of you have had the enemy come at you for around this many days straight, harassing you in your heart & mind, in an attempt to make you “dismayed and greatly afraid”? I’m sure we’ve all had this “giant” come against us at different times in our lives. Then David came on the scene and there were several things that he did in this event that we can do as well to counter our own giants. The first thing he did was realize that Goliath was not just defying the army of Israel, but he was defying the armies of the living God. David realized Israel had a covenant with God and that meant that God was bound to give them the victory over these Philistines. You see, in a covenant, when one of the parties went into battle the other fought with them. Therefore, David knew that because of Israel’s covenant with God, that this “uncircumcised Philistine” (i.e. this Gentile who did not have a covenant with God) was no match for him. You see, this is what the enemy will do: He doesn’t always come at you directly. He will put thoughts in your mind that defy the armies of the living God. In other words, he will bring accusations about God Himself, and he will attempt to slander God’s people. And sometimes when that happens, it’s easy to agree with him. Why? Because it’s not personal. It’s not aimed at you. But I just love what David did when he heard these blasphemous words. He took it personal! You see, David could have just ignored these words and gone on his merry way. But he didn’t. He recognized the error that was being spoken in his ears, and he was also hearing of the benefits that would come to the one who would do something about this giant. Church, this is a beautiful illustration of how we all ought to be hearing in our hearts. We first need to able to recognize the spirit of error when it rears its ugly head, and we also need to hear the voice of truth, which if we are hearing correctly, will oftentimes remind us of all of God’s benefits. I’m reminded of the 103rd Psalm where David spoke to his own soul, telling it to bless the Lord. But he also told his soul to do something else, didn’t he? He also said, “And forget not all His benefits …” So if I’m hearing from God, this is something I will be hearing – about all of the benefits I have in Christ, not all of the fears of what I can’t have or won’t get. Those lies have to be correctly discerned in our minds so we can do something about them when they come. Amen? But then guess what other voices piped up? The voice of his brother trying to take the wind out of his sails, accusing him of things like pride and having bad motives. Have you ever heard anything like this inside of you? Is there a voice that tries to condemn & accuse of things? You need to know something today – those voices are not of God. They are the voice of doubt & unbelief. So guess how David dealt with his brother’s accusations? He first spoke back to him and then he turned from him and kept on inquiring about what these benefits were. Amen! Church, that is how you deal with those naysaying voices inside of you: You speak to them and then turn your back on them and continue saying the right things! Amen! Doesn’t this sound familiar with what Blind Bart did when those voices were trying to get him to be quiet? Yup! The Bible says that he cried out all the more! The next thing we see in this story is that David’s words where heard - they told Saul. Verse 31 specifically says, “Now when the words which David spoke were heard, they reported them to Saul; and he sent for him.” One takeaway from this verse is that yours and my words are heard too. It may not seem like it at times. It may feel like our words are falling to the ground. But our faith-filled words are most definitely heard. And because of that, those “Sauls” then will try to bring us back to reality. In verse 33, we see what those voices in our mind will tell us – “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” Yep, that’s what the unbelief will tell us – “You can’t do that! And let me tell you why …” So how did David deal with these words (i.e. thoughts) of doubt? He recalled those memories of his past victories. Yes, he not only recounted how he was used by God to kill a lion and a bear who, in the natural, seemed to be impossible victories, but he also spoke back to those words of doubt, telling them about what God had done for him. So, remember: Declaring our past victories will spark faith in us for the current giant in our life. We need to build memorials in our lives that call to remembrance all the things God has brought us through and then speak them! So after David got the “good to go” from king Saul, which was miraculous in and of itself because, you have to remember, if David lost, they would have all become the servants of the Philistines, yet he let David be their representative. So Saul was essentially putting all his eggs in one little basket – namely, this youthful, little basket named David. So David’s confidence must have been very convincing, and true faith will be just that – it’ll sell. So then we see, in verses 38-39, how Saul wanted David to wear his armor for this confrontation with Goliath, but David declined and made the decision to go into it just wearing his own spiritual armor. Church, this is an important point: We do not need to try and fight our own battles wearing what maybe worked for someone else. That’s not the best way to get victory. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God (See Second Corinthians 10:3). In other words, we just need to get our weaponry from the Lord. Sure, others can offer good advice, and there is some safety in the multitude of counselors, but the things that will bring us victory will be the help we receive directly from God. Never forget that. And in the next verse (verse 40), we are told how he got his weaponry. He went to the brook and gathered five smooth stones. So what do these symbolize? I see them as those words from God that we receive from the brooks of His presence. Yes, they are rhema’s that you and I can receive that are washed in the water of the Word. In other words, they are those truths, instructions, and direction we get from the Holy Spirit that are refined by Him, making them as spiritually aerodynamic as they need to be. We need to hear from the Holy Spirit, saints! These are the smooth stones that will be used to slay our giants. It’s not going to be other people’s weapons. Our victory will come straight through what the Lord naturally gives us through His Spirit. Then we see how David drew near to the Philistine … And we are told that Goliath looked at David and “disdained him.” This resulted in him beginning to roar like a lion, trying to put fear in David’s heart. And Goliath said something that the enemy still says today – “Come to me and I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field” (vs.44). In other words, “Come on! Try and take me on! Try and believe for your wholeness! Try it, and I’ll take even more away from you and leave you with nothing!” So, what was the enemy trying to do to David here? He was trying to put a picture in David’s head of what would happen to him if he confronted this giant. This illustrates to us how the enemy will try and use our imagination against us. If he can get us to ponder those pictures of defeat in our minds, then our faith will grow weaker. You see, it has been well-said that the word F.E.A.R stands for “false expectations appearing real.” And the way that these false expectations appear real is in our mind and our imagination. On the other hand, if God can get us to ponder images of victory in our minds, then we will grow in faith and, therefore, will receive what God has for us. You see, we have to see it in here (i.e. in your heart and mind) in order to see it out here (i.e. in the natural)! So, what did David do when Goliath was trying to paint that picture of defeat in him? Did he just stand back and do nothing? No, David verbally responded to those fear-filled images by creating faith-filled images in himself! I just love what David said in response to his giant in verses 45-47 – “You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you. And this day I will give the carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the birds of the air and the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands.” He essentially told his giant, “Yeah, you’ve come at me with pain, hurt, and heartache. But I’m coming at you in the name of Jesus!” Do you hear the confidence there? And it gets even stronger when David said what he did next … He said, “The Lord will …” and “I will …” This is faith-talk, saints! And it’s what determines whether things “will” happen or not. Yes, in verse 46 alone he used the word “will” three times – “the Lord will deliver you into my hand,” “I will strike you and take your head from you,” “I will give your carcass…” David had tremendous confidence and boldly confessed what would happen before he ever saw it happen. But again, this is what David was able to see: We are told that he saw Goliath dead in this valley with birds and wild beasts eating his carcass. Saints, it would do us good to sometimes just close our eyes and imagine ourselves being able to do things that have seemed impossible. When we start seeing it through the eyes of faith then we will start seeing it with the eyes of our head! So all of this led to the big face to face with his Goliath: Verse 48 begins to tell us how the talk was over, and it was “go time!” And we see how it only took one stone to slay Goliath and we are even told how “there was no sword in the hand of David” (verse 50). What the Holy Spirit is wanting us to see there is how the battle is not ours, but it belongs to the Lord. In fact, this is something you see the Lord repeat over and over in the Scriptures from the Lord defeating Pharoah’s army for the children of Israel to God giving Jehoshaphat a supernatural victory. You see, it is easy to gravitate towards thinking that we need some help in the natural to get victory over our obstacles, but that’s not true. All we need is the Lord. Now if the Lord tells you that something else is needed, then yes. But generally, you will find that our victories come through us not needing to fight with our own armor. CONCLUSION Church, we must also learn to do these things David did as we face the giants in our lives. Mind you, this defeat of Goliath is what positioned David for what he had been anointed to do. So a lot of times, us reaching our full purpose & calling is going to come through us tackling our giant. But I believe this story teaches you and I how to see that mountain – our giant obstacle – removed and moving past the mediocrity of where most Christians live. But if we are going to take anything away from this story of David vs. Goliath, know this: The best way to counter these giants is to speak faith-filled words – to rebuke the thing that is hemming us in and binding us up. Why do I say this? It is because before David ever tried to take on Goliath, he first spoke faith-filled words. This is why I just love a quote I heard from Mark Hankins! He said, “Never run at your giant with your mouth shut!”–to which I give a hearty ‘Amen!” So church, whatever the mountain / giant is that seems to be keeping us from getting “over the hump,” know that these things are removed from our lives by us taking authority over them and speaking to them. Speak to that depression and tell it – “You are not going to rule my life anymore, depression. It is written, I am free indeed in Christ Jesus. He has redeemed me from you.” Speak to that fear and say, “Fear, you have no hold on me. The Scriptures say that I am no longer in bondage to you. I have a spirit of faith, not a spirit of fear.” Yes, church, speak to that mountain. Curse the fig trees that aren’t bearing fruit. Bless the ones you desire to bear fruit. Use the power that is in your tongue to bring life to what needs it and to bring death to the giants that need to go. You have the authority & dominion over your garden just like Adam did. You have the power to frame your world with your faith-filled words just like God did. That small rudder has the power to steer your life to get you to the other side. Amen! |
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